Blood Double - Softcover

McMahon, Neil

3.58

117 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061030902 ISBN 13: 9780061030901

Publisher: HarperTorch, 2003

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The well-dressed gentleman dumped from a limousine into the parking lot of San Francisco's Mercy Hospital was not your typical junkie hovering near death from a heroin overdose. Attending physician Dr. Carroll Monks knows something's very strange -- and very wrong -- even before a phalanx of lawyers and doctors appears out of nowhere to whisk his recovering patient away . . . and a suspicious fire destroys all evidence that the man was ever there.

But the sinister conspiracy surrounding the disappearance of a billionaire computer wunderkind is deeper and murkier than Monks could have possibly guessed. Suddenly his ethics and his curiosity are dragging Carroll Monks into a nightmare of outlaw technology, corporate greed, and inhuman experimentation -- and placing him in the deadly path of powerful forces who will stop at nothing to speed the coming of a dark and terrible future.

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About the Author:

Neil McMahon holds a degree in psychology from Stanford and was a Stegner fellow. He has published ten novels, in addition to the bestselling thriller Toys, coauthored with James Patterson. He lives in Missoula, Montana, where his wife directs the annual Montana Festival of the Book.

From Publishers Weekly:

Flinty, incorruptible San Francisco surgeon Carroll Monks returns in this entertaining but shallow sequel to McMahon's Twice Dying. This time, the gruff Mercy Hospital doctor is thrust into the midst of high-powered corporate intrigue after he saves the life of a scruffy-looking junkie who's overdosed on Demerol. Monk's daughter, Stephanie, an impressionable med school student, recognizes the drug abuser as Lex Rittenour, a reclusive and egomaniacal software designer who's the power behind the throne at Aesir, a major bio-tech company. Shortly after Rittenour is escorted out of the hospital's ER by shady Aesir attorney Ron Tygard, Mercy's blood lab is attacked by saboteurs posing as local firemen. Rittenour's blood samples are among those destroyed, and the cagey Monks and Stephanie quickly deduce that Aesir is trying to destroy any evidence that its genius-in-residence was ever at the hospital. The company can't afford any negative publicity: it's planning a major IPO and putting the finishing touches on REGIS, a revolutionary piece of software that can quickly and comprehensively scan any individual's entire genetic makeup. When Monks sets out to confront Aesir's head honchos, he finds himself contending with the company's ruthless CEO, Ken Bouldin; the seductive Dr. Martine Rostanov; and a secret, highly unethical research project conducted on illegal Korean immigrants. McMahon's sophomore effort shows little depth or character development, and his exploration of the ethical dark side of genetic research can be pat. Still, the novel is plenty of fun, with swift pacing, some tense scenes and a likably crusty protagonist. Monks has a real knack for putting people in their place, as when he tells the obnoxious Tygard, "You don't have to flaunt your inner child so much." There are few lulls in this shipshape medical thriller.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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