So start. Got interesting in the middle. Main character has Asperger’s and tries to solve mystery of what happened to dad and his hospital. Ends too quick without proper explanation. Wasn’t awful but could have been better. ( )

Review: The Second Opinionby Michael Palmer. 4.5* 06/21/2022

I enjoy reading books with a medical aspect as the theme. I have always enjoyed Michael Palmer’s book. He is a great writer, organized, and describes well develop characters. This book is based on Asperger Syndrome information and how it affects different people in various ways.

Dr. Thea Sperilakis who has asperger’s couldn’t handle the suburban hospital that her father supervises so she left to practice in Africa. Her father is severely hurt in an accident she must go home and talk over the situation with her siblings. Thea finds out her father is in a coma and after a while her siblings argue with her to let him pass. Thea is convinced her father is showing signs of communicating with her but her father hides it from everyone else. However, know one believes her accept there is someone else who knows it is possible she is telling the truth.

Was the accident premeditated, did someone want him dead, and was there someone giving her father a sedative to keep him from communicating with his daughter? I enjoyed the book but just a little disappointed with the ending. ( )

Dr. Thea Sperelakis, who has been working outside the country after seeking a change, returns to the Boston area when her father (also a physician) is involved in a hit-and-run and is hospitalized and in a coma. Though the rest of her siblings (a twin brother and sister, also doctors, and another brother who mostly stays at home as a genius recluse) feel there is not much hope, Thea is not quite ready to give up hope, especially when she believes her father is communicating with her from his hospital bed via eye blinks. Soon Thea is convinced that something evil underlies his accident, that it was indeed no accident, and she seeks to discover who and why someone would want to see her father dead.

It has been a while since I've read a medical thriller. This was an abridged audio and as abridgments go, it was fair, though somewhat choppy at times with abrupt transitions, etc. But the meat of the story was there. I enjoyed it well enough, though found that it stretched the edges of realism a few times, which thrillers tend to do. Thea was characterized as having Asperger Syndrome, which seemed mostly realistic, although I felt that the audiobook reader roboticized the voicing of her character a bit too much. Overall, a decent read, though not one that's particularly likely to stick with me for very long. ( )

Wow. After reading this, you KNOW you need to get a second opinion whenever something serious is going on health-wise. I appreciated how characters with ASD or ASD-like tendencies were written. Michael Palmer's insight was refreshing. The romance was good and the end was not what I expected.

I will miss Dr. Michael Palmer's novels. He was a remarkable man. ( )

A medical thriller. Dr. Thea Sperelakis, an idealist, rushes back to Boston after learning her physician father, an intimidating figure known as the Lion, is close to death, the victim of a hit-and-run.