Joshua Spanogle

Isolation Ward is an excellent medical thriller, on one of my favourite topics, infections diseases. It's well executed and reminds me of a combination of the best parts of Richard Preston & Robin Cook.

It begins with an undetermined disease presenting in a handful of patients who happen to be from group homes of the mentally handicapped, as investigations continue it seems the common thread is an illusive man with a checkered past. The investigating doctor along with way manages to ruffle too many political feathers along the way and gets shipped out to what is meant to be a backwater to follow up a lead deemed not important. However it turns out this lead isn't as unimportant as it initially appeared.

Overall, good pace, enjoyable read. Would recommend.… (mer)

A former medical detective for the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Nate McCormick had seen enough suffering to last a lifetime. Now he’s left the CDC, determined to begin a new life with his girlfriend in San Francisco…until the vicious murder of a biotech researcher—an old friend—hurtles him back into the medical world he’d left behind. While the police hunt for a killer, Nate starts sifting through evidence, determined to find what his friend did to provoke his brutal death. And the truth he ultimately discovers far exceeds the very worst he had imagined.

I liked the premise of this story but the main character, Nate, was often immature, angry and not that likeable. Nate also put himself and sometimes others in grave danger over and over again without good reason. There was interesting medical information scattered throughout and the pace was fast but Nate made so many bad decisions that I didn’t enjoy this much.… (mer)

A mysterious illness has appeared in several women living in group homes for the moderately mentally impaired and as the disease continues to ravage the women's bodies the doctors in the Baltimore hospital in which they have been admitted realize they have a deadly comminicable biological threat on their hands. Immediately the women are placed in isolation and Dr. Nate McCormick from the CDC is called in to investigate. Nate comes upon some alarming facts that show the disease is spread by sexual contact and that somehow these women have been involved with the same man over a short period of time. Trying to find the source of the disease leads Nate to San Franciso where his mentor, Dr. Tobel, is still doing research at the medical school Nate once attended. As Nate asks questions of people thought to be involved with the elusive carrier of the disease some of the witnesses are murdered and as Nate gets closer to the truth his own life is in grave danger. He realizes that Dr. Tobel knows much more than she is admitting and that her research may have gone to areas too horrible to contemplate. Nate teams up with a former love, Dr. Brooke Michaels, and the two of them relentlessly pursue the killers as the Baltimore patients begin to die.

I enjoyed this mystery/thriller for the most part; it was certainly suspenseful and interesting. The biology and science were way over my head, unfortunately, so that took away from the story somewhat for me. Nate was not always an entirely likeable character but he was certainly dedicated and determined to get at the truth. The author certainly has medical expertise and it shines through. There was one particular scene in the book that was so medically graphic that if I could have read it with my eyes closed I would have! If you like medical mysteries you will probably like this one.
… (mer)