Deadly Medicine

Joanna Blalock #1

by Leonard Goldberg

Excellent Book

Genres: Mystery, Medical Thriller, Fiction, Medical

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published November 3, 1992

About the author

Leonard Goldberg is an American physicist, professor of medicine, and the author of the Joanna Blalock series of medical thrillers.

His novels have been translated into a dozen languages and sold more than a million copies worldwide. Leonard Goldberg is himself a consulting physician affiliated with the UCLA Medical Center, where he holds an appointment as Clinical Professor of Medicine. A sought-after expert witness in medical malpractice trials, he is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and rheumatology, and has published over a hundred scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals.

Leonard Goldberg's writing career began with a clinical interest in blood disorders. While involved in a research project at UCLA, he encountered a most unusual blood type. The patient’s red blood cells were O-Rh null, indicating they were totally deficient in A, B and Rh factors and could be administered to virtually anyone without fear of a transfusion reaction. In essence, the patient was the proverbial "universal" blood donor. This finding spurred the idea for a story in which an individual was born without a tissue type, making that person’s organs transplantable into anyone without worry of rejection. His first novel, Transplant, revolved around a young woman who is discovered to be a universal organ donor and is hounded by a wealthy, powerful man in desperate need of a new kidney. The book quickly went through multiple printings and was optioned by a major Hollywood studio.

Dr. Goldberg is a native of Charleston and a long-time California resident. He currently divides his time between Los Angeles and an island off the coast of South Carolina.

Reviews

[Tina]

Doctors should probably stay doctors and not writers. Certainly not when they write women. Also very confused about the message behind the whole abortion situation. Plot overall was okay. The guy was just so afraid we might not understand what was going on he had to write approximately 100 times all the clues, in case we missed them the first 99.

[Peggy Walker]

I got this recently at a used book store. It's interesting seeing how easily surprises could be plotted before the era of cell phones!! This series features a forensic pathologist, Joanna Blalock. These books are a fast read. He tells a pretty good story, and I coudln't figure out the killer until right before the end, which is good. Interestingly, there is not actually a lot of forensic pathology in the book. That makes it very different from the Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs books, which also feature female forensic specialists. This story involves a serial killer who is killing women and crosses paths with our heroine when the murders start to encroach on her medical center. A good vacation/beach book.

[Emily]

3.5 why do he write abt women that way

[Jacob Peled]

Since the book is from 1992, I Could not find a digital copy. So I downloaded the Scanned PDF Copy from a site, and used another site to translate it into ePub (can also be done by using Claude AI to translate it into ePUB. )

So far, I’ve read six books by "Leonard Goldberg". 5 of them earned five stars from me, while one received only 2 ("Brainwaves"). As it turned out, my seventh Goldberg book was the first installment in his "Joanna" series.

The story started out promisingly, but it soon evolved into the kind of detective novel reminiscent of "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson". There were countless characters, endless investigations, a great deal of dialogue and exposition, and an ever-growing list of suspects.
In the end, as is often the case in old-fashioned mystery novels, the culprit turned out to be someone who had barely been under suspicion at all, seemingly chosen simply to surprise the reader. I found that approach rather unconvincing and not particularly skillful.

I also skipped quite a few passages that had little or nothing to do with the main storyline. I still have two more books in the series waiting on my shelf, but I think I’ll postpone reading them until next year.

[Dawn]

The amount of sexism in this book was tough to take. Most seemed to be intentional but I think some was not. There was also a dumb romance that seemed really forced. I couldn't understand why he paints the female character as such an intelligent, strong, independent woman and then has her fall for a sexist jerk detective. It seemed out of character and like he thought the book needed a romance or that she just needed a man. UGH, no! I was also excited to see a character named Whalen and then annoyed when he was later referred to as Whelan.

But this was generally a good mystery with just the right amount of medicine thrown in. It's not in any way jargon-heavy or confusing to non-medical professionals. Also it's the first book of this series, so maybe it gets better. I actually did read two others in this series, but it was so long ago the only thing I remember is that I liked them. I might need to give them a re-read and see if I feel the same.

[Chris Rolik]

After taking a break from pleasure/escape reading as I always do at the start of a new semester, I picked up this book (on a recommendation that's already lost in the fog of distant memory). I forced myself to finish reading it because I am just that masochistic. Noting that it was written in 1992, and we have come such a long way in police, medical, and forensic procedurals, even so, this reads like a really, really, really bad cop show from the early 1970s. This author never met a cliche he didn't like, and - always the first telltale sign of mediocrity for me - would describe a character as "witty', "brilliant", or some other superlative, immediately following an exchange that was dull, inane, and, yes, loaded with cliches. Ugh. I won't go on. But I won't read any further in this series - this was quite enough.

[Read With Ala]

Incredible book, very interesting. I want to continue reading de saga.

Me pareció un caso interesante y en los ataques de parte de Edward a Joanna, OMG. Debo admitir que al principio Sinclair me caía mal, pero bueno al final me cayó bien, aunque esa relación que tiene con Joanna está media rara, espero que la hayan desarrollado mejor a lo largo de la sala.

[Chelsea]

Nothing to be amazed about but it took up some free time. Followed a typical mystery/murder pattern. Women are killed, someone close to protagonist, someone closer to protagonist, PD makes arrest of wrong man, right guy is found out. He reveals all his plans, it ends the way most of them end.

[Julia White]

Very creepy, and not in the way that a “thriller” book should be. If you are able to look past the blatant sexism you will be met with a mediocre plot. Overall, NOT worth the read unless you like to suffer, and in that case, enjoy! Will not get those hours of my life back.

[Sue]

Sweet and to the point; pretty exciting, couldn't put it down--took me two days. Swell, I'd say.

[Amanda]

I love that it takes to the end to pick the actual killer. I had the wrong guy more than once before the end

[Elkie]

Summary: Psychotic egomaniac uses an experimental drug to get his jollies while killing women. The police investigator in charge of the case leans heavily on the experience of an intelligent, female physician named Joanna Blalock to help him solve the crime. Ridiculous scenarios ensue.

[Dot]

A typical psycho serial killer story where everyone is good looking and the cops are smart. Also a misogynistic undertone- having characters complain about women doctors when you're writing a book in 1992 is cringe.

[Kelly]

I like medical thrillers, this one was just okay. Maybe because it's an old one it seemed and was so outdated!!

[Val]

A good read with a surprise ending!

[Amy Rogers]

2 star medical thriller (good book but below average for the genre). More of a mystery/medical procedural than a thriller, this book is written basically in the style of Michael Palmer but it's just not as good as Palmer. For my full review, see ScienceThrillers.com

[Ellen]

JoAnn Blalock #1

[Tomara]

3.75