The First Patient
£9.07
Highly readable yet fundamentally flawed - If you re going to write a novel about underdeveloped characters making one flawed decision after another in less than credible circumstances, you d better be able to tell a great story. Luckily, Michael Palmer is able to do just that, making The First Patient an entertaining thriller that works well despite its rather obvious flaws. This is my first Michael Palmer novel, so I can t compare this one to the author s list of past medical thrillers, but I can say that there was never a single moment in this one that I forgot I was reading a work of fiction, i.e., I was never completely drawn in to the drama. On a number of occasions, all I could do was smirk, shake my head, and keep reading because I knew that characters in such a situation would never do what these just did.Gabe Singleton is a most unlikely choice for a U.S. President s personal doctor. Haunted by a drunk driving accident that killed an innocent young woman and her unborn child, got him drummed out of the Naval Academy, and bought him a five-year stay in prison, Gabe somehow got in to a medical school and has tried to compensate for his past wrongs by saving lives as a doctor. He s more than happy on his ranch in Wyoming - but he can t turn down his old friend, President Andrew Stoddard, when he flies in out of the blue, explains that his personal physician has disappeared, and asks Gabe to take his place. In and around Washington, there are rumors that the President s mental dinghy has struck a leak - and Gabe soon learns why, after seeing the President in the throes of an obvious mental episode. Suddenly, he finds himself in the difficult position of determining whether or not this man, currently engaged in a spirited reelection campaign - not to mention his own good friend - has the mental capacity to retain his job as the most powerful man in the world. Gabe can t turn around without running into a dark secret or conspiracy - starting with his still-missing predecessor and his obvious interest in nanotechnology. In order to save the President, Gabe s going to have to save himself first, as he is targeted for murder in his own right. With no one to trust, not even the pretty nurse who may or may not be who she claims to be, Gabe has to somehow find his inner James Bond if he s ever going to get to the bottom of the high-level conspiracy threatening to destroy and very likely assassinate the President of the United States.As far as the medical part of this medical thriller goes, the whole nanotechnology bit just doesn t take you all that far. My real problem with the novel, though, comes down to the issue of credibility. I obviously can t delineate all of the specific plot points here, but suffice it to say that all of the main characters make decisions I found less than credible. I had you must be kidding reactions to many a plot point, especially toward the end. That ending did hold a couple of real surprises, but they felt quite forced to me - I certainly had no regrets over not seeing such things coming because I think Palmer just threw them in there without having lain any sort of foundation for their sudden existence in the book s closing pages. Ultimately, while I did enjoy reading this fast-paced thriller, I can t say I was all that impressed by it.
The first casualty is credibility - When the premise of a novel is `what if the President of the United States were mentally incompetent? you have to wonder where the author has been for the last 7 years.Michael Palmer s latest tale is a blend of medical mystery and political thriller. The story is a throwback to the outlandish plots of James Bond and The Man from Uncle, but without the tongue-in-cheek humour. In fact, Palmer s attempts at humour are a weak point. When the President says his dog is strong as a tiger, wise as an owl... etc, the hero says, Maybe you should have named him Simile which causes the President to laugh out loud. And that s about as funny as the jokes get, I m afraid. But the book does have action and suspense (plus a dash of pedophilia and the torture of a woman, which some readers would be more comfortable without).Readers of genre fiction like plenty of authenticity, as it gives them the excuse that their escapist reading is educational, and Palmer obliges with regular doses of medical facts. These do not always flow with the narrative and can be intrusive. But the writing is good enough and the story has pace and flair. This is not great literature and does not pretend to be. So if you are looking for a light read, are not perturbed by the above-mentioned torture, etc, and are prepared to believe the unbelievable, you might give this a try.