The Inquisitor: A Medical Thriller

Such a pleasure to discover an author who cares about his characters. Thanks, Peter, for writing well. You're in the top five, along with Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.

This was my first book by Peter Clement, it was great. Grabs your imagination from the first page and holds it to the last! I have been a Robin Cook fan for a long time, Mr. Clements is giving him serious competition.

Dr. Earl Garnet in this book uncovers some amazing situations through the hospital which lead to various functions of the hospital, and how they are able to handle cases that come into the hospital. The hospital administrator is able to work in connection with Earl to look for some of these disturbing, yet interesting adventures that helps brings things to a closure. This book is recommended for anyone who is wnating an exhilirating, yet mysterious book to read.

St Paul's Hospital in Buffalo, NY is under seige by the SARS virus. Staff and patients alike have to be gowned and protected from an invisible menace. Death tolls are rising. It's expected people will die at St. Paul's no matter how hard the docs fight against it. But, Dr. Earl Garnet, the new VP/Medical and Chief of the ER is seeing patterns he doesn't like. Terminal patients in the Palliative Care Unit are passing sooner than they are supposed to--and some who are not dying are reporting Near Death Experiences. Digging just a little further, he discovers many of those patients report a person hovering over their beds asking them questions as they are dying. So, what's happening? Do they have an Angel of Mercy euthanizing their patients or is their resident NDE researcher engaging in some extracurricular activity? What I really like about this story is while Clement lays out the clues, there are so many hospital workers tied in the situation and guilty for reasons both good and bad. This book not only provides a good read, but gives the reader some pause to consider paincare and the end of life. Very well done and worth looking into more of Clement's stories to find out what else Dr. Earl Garnet has experienced.

Peter Clement has been writing medical thrillers for a number of years, utilizing his experience as a hospital emergency room physician to bring an edge-of-the-seat feeling to the events that he describes so succinctly and realistically. Clement does not pull any punches in his descriptions of his medical procedures, and his novels require our undivided attention. Always a good writer, he has polished his rough edges to the point where he is becoming an A-list thriller writer. His latest, THE INQUISITOR, featuring Dr. Earl Garnet, firmly ensconces his position there. THE INQUISITOR opens with a terminally ill cancer patient being relentlessly questioned by a voice, whispering in the dark, asking her to describe what she sees during the final moments of her life. As the story unfolds Garnet begins to notice a pattern --- a cluster, if you will --- of deaths at St. Paul's Hospital, which leads him to suspect that someone on staff may be prematurely terminating the lives of patients. The hospital and its staff, already stressed by the SARS epidemic, is at a breaking point, and virtually everyone --- even trusted members of Garnet's own emergency room staff --- is a suspect. What Garnet does not suspect is that his investigation, initiated with the intention of protecting the innocent, is directly putting members of his staff at risk --- and his wife, pregnant with their second child, is ultimately in the greatest danger of all. THE INQUISITOR is, quite frankly, impossible to put down. It is by far Clement's best work, a heart-racing thriller that leaves the reader guessing the identity, and motive, of a diabolical murderer until almost the very end. For those readers heretofore unfamiliar with Clement, and Garnet, THE INQUISITOR will make true believers of them. Recommended. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub