Book Review of the Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer

The Last Surgeon is skilfully written and full of twists and turns. Michael Palmer is a medical doctor and introduces his knowledge into his books making them believable and fascinating to read. The main character in The Last Surgeon is Doctor Nick Garrity who is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving time in Afghanistan.

The Characters in The Last Surgeon

The Last Surgeon starts with an assassin performing what he terms a "non-kill". He has perfected the art of killing someone but making it look like a suicide. His victim is a nurse by the name of Belle Coates and he tells her that someone has ordered her death.

Doctor Nick Garrity is a surgeon who lost his fiancé in a suicide attack in Afghanistan. Scarred emotionally, he is unable to function in a fulltime position but rather helps Junie Wright to run a mobile clinic for the homeless in D.C. and Baltimore. He also helps other vets to apply for benefits and seek help for PTSD.

Jillian Coates is sister to Belle and finds it hard to believe her sibling committed suicide. When her home is burnt to the ground two weeks later, she is convinced that something is amiss and starts to investigate.

The Storyline of The Last Surgeon

As Jillian sifts through the evidence, she links up with Doctor Nick Garrity and together they look into her sister's death. At the same time, Nick is searching for the man who saved his life in Afghanistan - Umberto Vasquez.

The search leads them to a top medical facility where patients undergo plastic surgery. Using the computer-hacking skills of Reggie, Junie's nephew, they uncover some irregularities in the way the clinic is run. Following this trail, they uncover a string of "non-kills" - murders disguised as accidents and suicides.

The Last Surgeon is a riveting story and ends in a dramatic confrontation where all the loose ends come together and the reader has all his questions answered.

About Michael Palmer

Michael Palmer has written over a dozen medical thrillers and is well known as a best-selling author. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages. He trained in internal medicine at Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals and then spent twenty years as a full-time practitioner of internal and emergency medicine. He now works part time for the Massachusetts Medical Society as an Associate Director of their physician health program.

The Last Surgeon is a fine example of Michael Palmer's writing and engages readers from the first page. The medical facts are fascinating and as the story unfolds, the reader will find it hard to put the book down. The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer, St Martin's Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0