Dead Wrong

by Allen Wyler

When a top secret programme of implanting harrowing memories into innocent people comes to light, neurosurgeon Tom McCarthy is literally caught in the crossfire. Whilst McCarthy looks forward to a three day weekend, his office is suddenly raided by two Department of Defense investigators bent on arresting him for a crime he didn’t commit. All hell breaks loose when an inadvertent scuffle escalates, leaving one agent dead at the hands of the other, and McCarthy fleeing, but hopelessly trapped inside the labyrinthine corridors, heating ducts, and stairways of a gigantic Seattle Medical Centre. With the CIA and Seattle PD closing in, McCarthy unwittingly pulls Dr. Sarah Hamilton into the fray. And like rats in a maze, they struggle to stay one step ahead of their deadly hunters, whilst simultaneously uncovering a trail of corruption that reaches shocking dimensions.

Genres: Fiction, Suspense

404 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2012

About the author

Allen's thrillers have twice been nominated for the prestigious Thriller Award. He has served on the Board of Directors of the International Thriller Writers and is also an active member of the North American Crime Writers and Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Seattle.

Reviews

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read this author before. Would have given it 5 stars if someone had bothered to read it before publishing. How could they miss the grammatical errors. They were very distracting.

Dr. McCarthy was doing some paperwork before leaving for a 3 day holiday weekend when a couple of thugs walked into his office and accused him of stealing DARPA documents.

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have enjoyed the story much more if there hadn't been so many errors and transposed words in the ebook edition. If they need a good proof reader, I'm available. There is no excuse for the number of errors in such a short number of pages. Shame on you, makers of this ebook!

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had an intriguing premise which I would like to have learned more about but which seems to have been swallowed up in the "chase" scenes, which took up the vast majority of it. Also, it may be a matter of taste, but I like to figure out what's going on along with the main characters rather than being told up front and then waiting for them to figure it out, which I have to admit they did with what seemed like an unbelievably small amount of information.

One of my criticisms of this type of book has always been that the "bad guys" tend to be over-the-top cardboard characters, but in this one not only was that the case, but I also had to spend probably about half of it inside the heads of various indistinguishable villains who think about virtually nothing but the evil acts they intend to commit, in foul, repetitive language. (There seemed to be a couple of attempts to make them somewhat less one-dimensional - one thought about his retirement plans to go fishing - but even that seemed to be a cliché. I recommend Wilkie Collins' Count Fosco in The Woman in White as an example of a truly interesting, well-rounded villain.) They also seemed almost laughably incompetent, and I couldn't help but wonder why the main baddie didn't just take out a hit on the protagonist and have him gunned down in the street in a "mugging gone wrong," which would have been much more efficient. In addition, it seemed highly unlikely to me that he would ever have figured out what was going on in the first place without the impetus of all these people trying to kill him.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Wyler read. I like medical thrillers, so I was excited to read this and appreciate that he’s an actual physician, which usually lends some realistic aspects to certain portions of the stories. The problem with this one is he did not provide much character depth until over halfway in, so I didn’t really care about why Tom was running, because who the fuck even is Tom. Why should I care about him? Then, the first half of the book is essentially a grown up version of hide and go seek in a hospital. Then, it’s revealed that this science experiment was being unethically conducted by Tom’s nemesis. This seemed too out there for me to believe. I get there has to be a villain and it’s not that far fetched to believe people are used for research without their consent (it’s been done before), but even the simplest person isn’t just going to undergo brain surgery, complete follow up testing, take post op medications, etc without asking why. And if you’re going to do all this sneaky shit, you’re not going to put it in a medical record for someone to find. Thus prompting this whole storm of events. It just seemed stupid to me. Tie all that in with the horrible editing and the unnecessary digs at east TN people as well as non-neurosurgery specialties and I just wasn’t amused. I’ll give another one of his books a try in the event this one just sucked, but I’m not optimistic.

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've listened to a few books by Allen Wyler. I've liked all but one. Tom McCarthy is a neurosurgeon who's being blamed for stealing classified material. He hasn't stolen anything and has no idea why they would blame him! The two men from the department of defense don't believe him. After his secretary is killed Tom tries to escape. Leaving the hospital isn't easy when everyone is looking for Tom.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first I wasn't so intrigued by the whole memory swap scenario of this book. However, when I started reading I realized how interesting that topic was when you consider how it might affect you if you received memories from a child molester or something equally as horrible against your will and you believed them to be your own memories. It is also interesting to fantasize about how removing memories could help PTSD victims forget their haunting past or how the government could use a person's memories to uncover international secrets. With this aspect of the book that Wyler came up with, I was very impressed.

Now on to the bad. This book is supposed to be a thriller, but it really doesn't get your blood pumping at all. The main characters run from one location to the next, maybe have a confrontation or two, and, along the way, manage to figure out (rather conveniently I might add) who is framing Tom McCarthy and why. Nothing connects well with this book; it's all too easy. The romance between the characters feels rushed and uncomfortable and the way they connect the dots about the secret program did not seem realistic since they had very little information to go on. I also would've liked to see more of the victims of the memory swap experiments since those scenes were really twisted and interesting, but the story centers around McCarthy's quest for justice.

This is not a horrible book by all means. But after reading books like Deception Point, this book just sort of putters out compared to the fast paced action and suspense of other thrillers. I'm also getting a little worn out with Wyler's medical thrillers. The story lines are becoming very similar in that there is always some male doctor that is confronted by strong-arms that accuse him of some crime or other and he's forced into hiding until he can prove his innocence. The one thing that makes the books stand out are the eerie science projects that these characters stumble upon. However, for this book, the memory swap plot wasn't enough to save it in my mind.

*I received a free copy of this book for this review from the author.

[Jessica Bronder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Wrong starts off with a mother panicking about her son being kidnapped, but her husband says that she has never had a kid. From there we move to Tom McCarthy. It is the Friday before Labor Day and he is excited about a three day weekend. Then two guys come in and demand to know what he did with the DARPA documents. Tom has no idea what is going on and escapes them after they kill his secretary. Sara Hamilton works in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and is also treating one of the victims when she gets sucked into Tom’s escape too.

Before the CIA is the offer of a treatment for PTSD. Bertram Wyse has discovered a part of the brain that contains memories and that if they are implanted in another person’s brain, that person believes they are real. He feels that this would be an adequate solution to those that suffer from PTSD. But his partner is telling the CIA that it would make an efficient way to question terrorists. That torture can still give false information but if they remove that part of the brain then someone else could tell them the truth. The problem is two of Wyse’s unknown guinea pigs have had complications and ended up in Tom McCarty’s care. Thus why he needs to disappear before the information falls into the wrong hands.

I like Allen Wyler’s books and couldn’t wait to read Dead Wrong. This is another fast paced book where we follow Tom as he is running for his life. I like how the idea to treat PTSD was developed yet you can see the bigger, nastier picture of how it would be use. It’s creepy when you think about the different things that could happen to someone just because they fit the type a crazy doctor is looking for.

This is a great series of books. If you like medical thriller/mysteries you need to read these books.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[Glen Stott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written thriller about a doctor who stumbles into a secret government program designed to transfer terrorists’ memories to human volunteers in order to retrieve information to fight terrorism. In the very beginning, we find that Dr. Wyse, an unethical brain surgeon, is running the illegal experiments in which he transplants brain tissue so the terrorist information can be transferred to a volunteer who would reveal. Government agents are after McCarthy intent on killing him to keep the experimentation secret. McCarthy has no idea that he is on the verge discovering secret experimentation, and therefore doesn’t know why he is being chased. As the story progresses, McCarthy manages to get some people to help him as he stays a step ahead of his pursuers while trying to discover what they are after. The reason I read this book is because I will soon be working on a novel regarding transfer of emotions from one person to another. Of course I am interested in any book with a plot idea that resembles the one I plan to write. Fortunately, my plot does not involve anything so drastic as brain tissue. Also, “Dead Wrong” deals only superficially with the brain transfer idea. With a little massaging of the clues that McCarthy is following, any secret government program could drive the plot.

[Tea Time with Marce · Rating 3 out of 5]

From my blog - 3 1/2

I have read Dead End Deal by Allen Wyler, I enjoy his medical thrillers and so far can see it is a run for your life, medical competitive culture as a consistent style in his books.

It is annoying and a little unbelievable how Physicians can become 'God like' with their thinking, all powerful and will do what they want but with no morals. How dare they make life changing surgeries without patients knowing? The Physician doing this secret program is now scared to death that Dr. McCarthy, the Physician that patients have went to for a second opinion will figure out what is going on. He lies to all in order to put out a hit on Dr. McCarthy.

Without knowing Dr. McCarthy's background, they do not realise he has what it takes to fight back and make sure everyone knows he is the good doctor and prove they are dead wrong. When he tricks one of the detectives to kill his own, this when all bets are off and bringing him in becomes personal.

The cat and mouse was exciting at first but then became a little repetitive and lost its suspenseful impact. The complexity of the surgeries was to detailed in my opinion but you can tell the author was a neurosurgeon as he uses his experience to capture the true medical details.

I would read more of Allen Wyler's medical thrillers. Dead End Deal reminded me of "Locked up Abroad".

[mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This is my third book by Allen Wyler that I have read. Still a fan.
I am a sucker for a good medical mystery and this one didn't disappoint.
It was a quick read, full of suspense, medical jargon and frightening going-ons within the hospitals in Seattle. Once again Wyler has me wondering what exactly is happening in the real hospitals.

Dead Wrong is fast paced and highly entertaining. I had a hard time putting it down.

I was a little disappointed with the formatting and typos within my e-copy of the book, but it was a review copy so hope that it has been fixed in the ebooks for purchase. I won't hold it against the book, though, because I really did enjoy the story.

[Shannon]

I really tried reading this book, but I just couldn't. After a really intriguing beginning, it bounces around too much and then drones on and on about things that don't really even seem all that pertinent to the story. Maybe I'll pick it up again one day and give it a second try, like on a day when the world runs out of other books to read and after I've finished the phone book and dictionary. As for now, my advice is to skip this book unless you're suffering from insomnia.

[Joanne Slater · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was definitely a page turner - an action-packed, suspenseful story of the "bad guys" chasing the "good guys." Underlying the chase was a storyline that left room for discussion about whether the "bad guys" were justified in some of their actions by their long term goals for helping individuals suffering from PTSD.

[Versel Rush · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book plods along. By the end, you just don't car any more. The original part-brain surgery stuff-just goes away and it becomes nothing more than a "will they catch him" novel.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pulp genre piece that was perfect for a plane ride but unremarkable in most every way.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sooooo many typos... Who the hell proofread this ebook?!

[Jade Watson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a good story but PAINFUL to read. I read it as an ebook and there were easily 100 errors or omitted words.

[Rach · Rating 2 out of 5]

not finished

[Yvonne Powderly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read like an amateur writer. Places where the flow of the story were suspect. But good overall story.