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Dr Nathaniel McCormick leaves his post as a researcher with the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta to begin a new life in California with his girlfriend Brooke, a doctor with the Santa Clara Department of Public Health. Nate isn’t particularly happy to be back in the Bay Area. He’d been kicked out of a San Francisco university for fudging data during his pre-PhD days, and memories of those times still burn in his mind. The incident that almost side-railed his career comes back to haunt him when an old buddy, a man who deserted him in his hour of need, calls him one day and sets up a meeting. Paul Murphy is now a researcher with a growing bio-tech company. He asks for Nate’s help, but during a brief conversation in a coffee shop, he refrains from telling Nate what he wants from him or why he needs help. The two make a date to meet again at Paul’s place. Nate arrives at Murphy’s secluded home to find a scene of total chaos within. Paul and his wife have been murdered along with their two young children. Horrified by the brutality employed in the killings, Nate resolves to avenge his old friend. His involvement in the case results in a growing conflict with Brooke who demands that he abandon his investigation. Nate moves out of Brooke’s apartment, and while sharing what he knows with the police, he continues to use every resource at his disposal, including his old friends in the CDC, to pry into Paul’s past as a scientist. Material he finds in Paul’s home leads him to several people, all of Asian descent, who have been disfigured by cancerous facial tumors. Aided by Dr Ravi Singh, another old friend from his college days, Nate pursues a twisting path that leads from Hong Kong to San Francisco and involves a Chinese tong, a criminal enterprise rooted deep in Asian culture. Nate’s stubborn pursuit of justice endangers both him and the people he cares for. Too deep in the case to turn back, Nate stumbles towards the truth even as a net of death closes in around him. Joshua Spanogle first introduced Dr Nathaniel McCormick in ISOLATION WARD, his debut novel from Delacorte Press. Nate’s reappearance in this fast-paced medical suspense story gives Spanogle a second chance to highlight his own background as a medical student and researcher in bioethics. Nate’s cooperation with the police is refreshingly realistic when compared to the actions of so many other amateur sleuths. On the other hand, the compulsion driving Nate to avenge Paul’s death, despite the danger to himself and his friends, seems unreasonable, given that he despised the man for abandoning him years before. The author appears to understand the problem he created here and does his best to explain Nate’s mindset through a “should I, shouldn’t I” internal dialogue carried on by the character through much of the book. While not totally convincing, Nate’s reflections are necessary if readers are to accept his involvement in the case. Less convincing is Nate’s smart alec attitude when faced with torture. Like James Bond or Dirk Pitt, Nate remains unbelievably glib while enduring bone-crunching blows from the bad guys. Punches that would leave the rest of us screaming in pain seem only to energize the good doctor from Atlanta. Despite the flaws in FLAWLESS, the book remains a good example of fiction based on scientific fact. It’s a fast read with enough complexity to satisfy most clue hounds, plus a twist ending that resolves forever the question of Nate and Paul’s relationship. Not the best of the bunch, but a close second when it comes to medical suspense stories.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, September 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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