Listening to the audio version of Resistant was very enjoyable by Michael but probably not for the reason that you would think. I have been a fan for many years and then for some reason had stopped reading his books. What did not work for me in this story was the group of characters of the far right extremists named 100 Neighbors. They were just too pure evil. I would have liked to have heard some redeeming quality about that group. Their goal was to get "entitlements", Medicare and Social Security revoked so that employment would increase and the federal deficit decrease. That got my ire up! I have Medicare and receive Social Security checks,

This extremist group hoped to gain leverage by creating a "Doomsday Day Germ aka Janus virus that was related to the flesh eating horror that we currently have but also resistant to modern medicine.

The best characters to me were Lou Welcome from the previous books in this series, his best friend, "Cap" Duncan who gets exposed to the terrible germ and Humphrey Mills,a pharmacy worker. Humphrey Mills captured my heart as soon as I heard his voice. The reader of this audio is Robert Petkoff. I applaud him for his expertise with portraying the characters voice. Humphrey has a special way of talking because of his disability of cerebral palsy. Humphrey sounded exactly like my true life friend with the same disability. He has sort of a Clark Kent/Superman character. The Clark Kent is the one that people think of him as only the job that he has and also think of him as not being intelligent. The Superman part of his character is actually the true Humphrey with gigantic intellect. So I had fun picturing my real life friend in this role. I was so happy that the author did not kill him off or have him turn bad.

I would recommend this as a medical thriller but also as a book to make people of their own preconceived notions of a person with cerebral palsy. ( )

"Resistant" ties its characters together by using bioterrorism to unite various subplots. The book's grammatical and vocabulary components are simple leading to quick comprehension and a fast paced read. In a nutshell, the good guys try to stop a well financed, secret society from using bio-weapons to achieve control.

Personality and background information are presented in such a way that leaves you with a smooth feel for the characters. The various characters weave in and out of the plot nicely.

The author only deviates from pace when describing physical aspects of disease and injury. If you're eating, you might want to put the book aside or skip those pages. Gruesome. Some description is warranted, even desirable as a means to raise anxiety and impart a sense of urgency, but Palmer goes overboard.

All in all ... it's a good read and worth the time.

When the Doomsday bacteria threatens the life of his friend and mentor, Dr. Lou Welcome gets involved in ways unimaginable to this ER doc. Good story but not Palmer's best writing. ( )

Dr. Lou Welcome is sent to Atlanta to give a presentation at a medical convention. He's doing this for his boss who hopes to become president of this organization. Lou's boss can't give the presentation himself due to his wife's health.

Lou brings his best friend and AA sponsor, Cap Duncan on the trip. When there they go running and a freak accident lands Cap in the hospital. At the hospital he contracts a deadly infection for which there is no cure. This flesh eating bacteria is dubbed the Doomsday Germ by the media.

When Lou returns to work, he is fired for not giving the presentation. He tells his boss he was caring for Cap but his boss says Lou was at fault for going running and the cause of being fired is dereliction of duty. Although unhappy with the turn of events, it gives Lou time to return to Atlanta and care for Cap.

Doctors tell him the infection has spread and they have to amputate Cap's leg. Lou meets a pharmacist, Humphrey Mills who suggests a surgeon. Humphrey is an intelligent man who suffers from cerebral palsy and is often overlooked and unappreciated at the hospital. He asks Lou to help in his lab as Humphrey is very knowledgable about the virus and has an avid interest in microbiology.

There is a group of terrorists who are wealthy men. They want to eliminate entitlement programs such as social security, medicare and welfare. They plan to obtain the cure for the Doomsday Germ and blackmail the government into eliminating the entitlement programs in return for a cure of the disease.

There are good characters who are well described and sympathetic, the evil characters are very evil and we hope they can be stopped before reaching their goal.

The novel is fast moving and suspenseful. The author died at the end of last year and his family completed the novel. I didn't think the conclusion was up to the previous Lou Welcome novels, perhaps because it wasn't the work of the author. ( )

I keep forgetting that I've read Michael Palmer and that I don't really like his writing. The ideas are usually good, but the writing is campy and that's not what I'm into. This one was better than the last one (now that I've searched my library and reread my other reviews of his work).

In this novel, Dr. Lou Welcome, a case manager for doctors who are recovering from drug addiction and a recovering drug addict himself, travels to a conference in Atlanta to fill in for his boss. He brings his best friend Cap Duncan, and Cap ends up in the hospital after a serious accident. At the hospital, Cap is infected with a deadly bacteria with no known cure. Lou will go to any lengths to save his friend's life. ( )