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Dr. Earl Garnet #3
The Procedure
"Heartpounding suspense," hailed Entertainment Weekly of Peter Clement's first medical thriller, Lethal Practice. Now the former ER physician has done it again--combining his technical expertise with a page-burning plot to create a chillingly plausible novel of suspense.With authentic detail and a surgeon's precision, Clement captures the tense, electrifying atmosphere of a big city hospital turned into a flash point. For in Fatal Medicine, one threat is more dangerous than the threat of human beings deciding who should live and who should die. . . .Death is a daily, sometimes hourly, occurrence at St. Vincent's Hospital in Buffalo, New York. Now, in his pressure cooker career, Dr. Earl Garnet has broken the cardinal rule of modern he publicly blames a powerful HMO for practicing "no-fault murder" in the death of an eighteen-month-old baby. The HMO swiftly strikes back, igniting a debilitating boycott of the hospital. But after several accidents nearly cost patients their lives, the true bloodletting begins. A doctor is found sprawled out in the parking lot, his throat cut ear to ear.Blamed for instigating the chaos, Earl Garnet knows that he faces more than a deadly power play. The doctor may have uncovered a conspiracy reaching from the halls of one of the nation's most influential HMOs to a small, experimental clinic in Mexico, where yet another of his patients went for treatment and disappeared. To find answers, Garnet must wade deep into the murky, surreal workings of today's health care industry.Smart, tough, crackling with suspense, and vivid in its hospital setting, this visionary novel instantly places Peter Clement in the distinguished company of Michael Palmer and Robin Cook. Make no The Procedure is the work of a first-rate physician and an absolutely brilliant storyteller.From the Paperback edition.
388 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 28, 2001
11 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 27, 2017
In 'The Procedure', Dr. Earl gets into trouble when he blames a prominent Health Maintenance Organization, Brama for causing the preventable death of a baby. Shortly after, a doctor is found brutally murdered in the parking lot. This shocking murder is followed by a string of similar crimes, leaving no doubt that someone will do whatever it takes to keep the goings-on at Brama's experimental clinic under wraps..
Having read the first two Earl Garnet installments, I can easily declare this as the most violent and disturbing of all the three. The scalpel-wielding murderer was definitely a force to be reckoned with as he / she had no qualms about doing away with people using a very painful, terrifying way. Furthermore, this cold-blooded perpetrator was smart and careful, covering his / her tracks thus never leaving any evidence behind. The words written in blood next to the first victim were intriguing and brought up numerous questions that begged to be answered.
The mystery was well-thought-out and full of suspense. I found myself wondering about the significance of those words, trying to find a connection between the murders and Brama while pondering about what was happening at Brama's clinic in Mexico. Clement didn't disappoint here, as he gradually peeled back the layers concealing the answer to this mystery. The revelation was satisfying and made sense. It wasn't hard to figure out the identity of the serial killer since the author stuck to the same format and style of the previous two books.
Overall, 'The Procedure' was an engaging, intelligent medical mystery / thriller that delved into the dark side of the medical industry while balancing it with a spark of hope. People like Earl really can and do make a difference just by caring and risking their lives to protect other unsuspecting souls.
Having read the first two Earl Garnet installments, I can easily declare this as the most violent and disturbing of all the three. The scalpel-wielding murderer was definitely a force to be reckoned with as he / she had no qualms about doing away with people using a very painful, terrifying way. Furthermore, this cold-blooded perpetrator was smart and careful, covering his / her tracks thus never leaving any evidence behind. The words written in blood next to the first victim were intriguing and brought up numerous questions that begged to be answered.
The mystery was well-thought-out and full of suspense. I found myself wondering about the significance of those words, trying to find a connection between the murders and Brama while pondering about what was happening at Brama's clinic in Mexico. Clement didn't disappoint here, as he gradually peeled back the layers concealing the answer to this mystery. The revelation was satisfying and made sense. It wasn't hard to figure out the identity of the serial killer since the author stuck to the same format and style of the previous two books.
Overall, 'The Procedure' was an engaging, intelligent medical mystery / thriller that delved into the dark side of the medical industry while balancing it with a spark of hope. People like Earl really can and do make a difference just by caring and risking their lives to protect other unsuspecting souls.
July 10, 2024
It was a good medical mystery. Doctors were getting killed in the parking lot and Dr. Garnet was working with the police to try to solve this mystery. At the same time, HMOs were discouraging people to not go to the ER or hospitals as they wouldn’t pay for non emergency’s found in the ER. The two problems began to seem related and of course there was a surprise ending discovered by the investigating doctor who almost gets killed himself. An easy one to read.
March 30, 2018
Gripping thriller.
There are few medical thrillers that grab your attention and keep it. This was one of them. The writing is excellent with so many twists into the story that it keeps you guessing until the end. I didn't see it coming on who was the actual killer
until the very end!
There are few medical thrillers that grab your attention and keep it. This was one of them. The writing is excellent with so many twists into the story that it keeps you guessing until the end. I didn't see it coming on who was the actual killer
until the very end!
January 17, 2011
Clement's name rings a bell, so I've probably read another of his books, though it obviously didn't stick with me. In this book, while there was mention of what I suspect to be the subjects or earlier books, none of it sounded familiar, so if the other book I read featured Dr. Earl Garnet, it must have been a later book in the series.
This book was OK, but nothing special. It followed a similar course as others I've read, where a doctor decides to take on an HMO and ends up in hot water and at the mercy of the HMO's tentacles. In the meantime, 2 doctors associated with the HMO Garnet challenges end up dead, and while Garnet is not suspected, his position as Chief of Emergency Medicine and friendliness with the cop investigating the murders, puts him in a position to get involved and find the killer(s). The list of possible suspects grows with practically every chapter but it's not until the last couple where it all comes unraveled.
Not much in the book that doesn't have to do with either Garnet's battle with the HMO or the murders. Even the personal scenes with his family focus on the HMO, as his wife is also a physician, and she feels the shockwaves from the HMO's reaction to Garnet's comments.
The chronology of the book seems a little rushed too. It opens with Garnet finding himself presumably in an operating room gasping for air, then jumps back a mere 5 weeks to a scene where he makes his initial comments about the HMO. The OR scene returns late in the book, but it just seems illogical to believe everything in between happens on only 5 weeks.
Overall, I may read another of Clement's book, but I won't go out of my way to find them.
This book was OK, but nothing special. It followed a similar course as others I've read, where a doctor decides to take on an HMO and ends up in hot water and at the mercy of the HMO's tentacles. In the meantime, 2 doctors associated with the HMO Garnet challenges end up dead, and while Garnet is not suspected, his position as Chief of Emergency Medicine and friendliness with the cop investigating the murders, puts him in a position to get involved and find the killer(s). The list of possible suspects grows with practically every chapter but it's not until the last couple where it all comes unraveled.
Not much in the book that doesn't have to do with either Garnet's battle with the HMO or the murders. Even the personal scenes with his family focus on the HMO, as his wife is also a physician, and she feels the shockwaves from the HMO's reaction to Garnet's comments.
The chronology of the book seems a little rushed too. It opens with Garnet finding himself presumably in an operating room gasping for air, then jumps back a mere 5 weeks to a scene where he makes his initial comments about the HMO. The OR scene returns late in the book, but it just seems illogical to believe everything in between happens on only 5 weeks.
Overall, I may read another of Clement's book, but I won't go out of my way to find them.
October 13, 2016
The book flowed well for the most part though the ending was a little slow to resolution.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews