Dr. Thea Sperelakis has always been an outsider. She has a brilliant medical mind and a remarkable ability to recall details, but her difficulty in dealing with hidden agendas and interpersonal conflicts has led her to leave the complex, money-driven dynamics of a hospital and to embrace working with the poor. Her father, Petros, is one of the most celebrated internal medicine specialists in the world and the founder of the cutting-edge Sperelakis Center for Diagnostic Medicine at Boston's sprawling, powerful Beaumont Clinic.
When Petros is severely injured by a hit-and-run driver, no one thinks he will survive. Two of Petros's other children, both physicians, battle Thea and their eccentric brother, Dimitri, by demanding that treatment for their father be withheld. Meanwhile, Petros lingers in the Beaumont Clinic's intensive care unit, where Thea is his only advocate.
As Thea uncovers the facts surrounding the disaster, it seems more and more to be no accident. Petros himself is the only witness. Who would want him dead? The answers are trapped in his brain...until he looks at Thea and begins to slowly blink a terrifying message.

In The Second Opinion, Michael Palmer has created a cat-and-mouse game where one woman must confront a conspiracy of doctors to uncover an evil practice that touches every single person who ever has a medical test. With unforgettable characters and twists and betrayals that come from the most unlikely places, The Second Opinion will keep you guessing...and looking over your shoulder.

Dr. Thea Sperelakis is forced to rush home from the Congo, where she works as a doctor, after her father falls ill. Of course, this is a Palmer thriller, so there is far more than meets the eye going on at home. Thea's neurotic brother, Dmitri, uncovers a murderous plot to conceal medical fraud. Narrator Franette Liebow delivers a consuming performance that makes this over-the-top story seem plausible. Liebow's voice captures the expansive range of emotions that abound in each character, especially Thea and her ailing father. Liebow's accents are pitch perfect, and her voice is the ideal medium to bring a complex medical thriller to life. She never sounds as though she is reading but as though the events in question could actually be happening to her. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

 

Michael Palmer, M.D., is the author of twelve previous novels of medical suspense, all international bestsellers. In addition to his writing, Palmer is an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services, devoted to helping physicians troubled by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency, including alcoholism. In what spare time he has, Palmer is a weight lifter and avid tournament bridge player. He lives in Massachusetts, where he is best known for his two phantasmagoric cats and three incomparably witty sons. Visit and write him at www.michaelpalmerbooks.com.

The Second Opinion by Michael Palmer
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