Michael Palmer, who established himself as an author of popular medical thrillers like THE FIRST PATIENT and THE SECOND OPINION, tires to expand his fictional base somewhat in his latest novel, THE LAST SURGEON. But medicine and doctors still figure prominently here, and the overall results are a mixed success.
Jillian Coates is not convinced that the recent death of her sister, Belle, a nurse at the Charlotte Medical Center, was a suicide, as evidence at the scene and investigating authorities are convinced. So she undertakes an inquiry herself, which leads her to Dr. Nick Garrity, a former military officer suffering the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Garrity is devoting himself relentlessly to the work of a local mobile medical clinic — a personal mission of his. Years ago, a friend, Lt .Umberto Vasquez, disappeared mysteriously. Garrity is not convinced that Vasquez is dead. Together, Jillian and Garrity discover a far-flung link between the death of her sister and the disappearance of his friend.
In the meantime, hired assassin Franz Koller — who, in reality, killed Jillian’s sister — is at work at another of his assigned “non-kills,” his term for a murder that he commits, but has it appear like a suicide or an unfortunate accident. His latest victims are all medical practitioners, and his assignments are coming from a shadowy presence identified as Jericho.
Koller is aware of Jullian’s efforts to discover the truth of her sister’s death, so he keeps a close watch on her and Garrity. Their paths eventually collide in a covert plot that might involve government authorized brain-washing and terrorism.
To his credit, Palmer tries to avoid the usual, by-the-numbers, serial-killer-on-the-loose formula by making Koller a hired killer rather than a lone psychopath. But Koller is as good as — and as fond of his work as — any of the too-numerous Hannibal Lecter knock-offs in thrillers these days. The chapters where he converses with his trapped victims before killing them can’t help but sound similar to other such scenes. And while Palmer tries also to construct a plot unlike any of his own or other serial-killer stories, he ends up with a narrative so tedious that we are still not certain what exactly is going on by the middle of the novel.
All of this is not helped by his herky-jerky, stop-and-start pacing. Obviously, he is trying to carry on separate plot lines that are destined to converge. But they take far too long to find each other, as is the case with his main characters and their eventual uncovering of the conspiracy at hand.
Palmer’s fans, as well as those readers who like some medical authenticity with their thrillers, will find much to their liking in THE LAST SURGEON. And, again, the author is to be commended for trying something different. But he misfires too many times for this latest work to be the breakthrough perhaps for which he and his publisher were longing. —Alan Cranis
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