Isolation Ward

By: Joshua Spanogle

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Straight out of today’s hospitals and labs - and tomorrow’s headlines - comes a frightening, scalpel-sharp thriller from medical insider Joshua Spanogle. In an astounding debut, Spanogle takes us on an all-too-real race against time...as a young doctor enters the dark side of scientific research, desperate to stop a terrifying epidemic before it is too late....

In Baltimore’s St. Raphael’s Hospital, three newly admitted patients are among society’s most helpless citizens: female residents of Baltimore’s group homes for the mentally impaired, their bodies racked by a virus the likes of which no one at St. Raphael’s has ever seen.

Dr. Nathaniel McCormick is one of the first on the scene. A young investigator from the Centers for Disease Control, Nate is paid to explore the bizarre, the exotic, and the baffling - from superviruses to bioterrorism. But as soon as Nate begins to investigate the lives and habits of the victims, he knows something is terribly wrong. Using all his skills as a medical detective, Nate soon zeroes in on the “vector” - the one person who had sexual contact with the first victims. And when that suspect is found murdered, Nate fears that the disease he’s chasing may not be an act of nature, but of man.

With his brash style angering his superiors and fellow investigators alike, Nate turns to an old colleague and former lover, Dr. Brooke Michaels, for help. Together the two investigators follow a twisting trail of clues to a discovery that is at once groundbreaking and unspeakable. And as a circle of treachery tightens around him, Nate is about to confront the most chilling revelation of all - and a past Nate himself has been trying to escape.

At once a taut medical thriller and a riveting psychological portrait of a young doctor on the edge, Isolation Ward is a tale of runaway tension - with a brilliant “what-if” premise that is harrowing...heartbreaking...and impossible to wrench from your imagination.

©2006 Joshua Spanogle (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"[A] tightly woven debut thriller....Engrossing and intellectually wrought." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Combines a wonderfully flawed yet stereotypically smart-ass hero with a plot that moves as rapidly as a lethal virus." (Entertainment Weekly)

"Spanogle is a funny, smart, and skilled writer at the beginning of what readers will hope is a long and prolific career." (Publishers Weekly)

Isolation Ward

Where to start on how poorly this book is written. Even Scott can't save this author's ridiculous attemps at humor. The chacters comments about situations are so unrealistic and infantile that they ruin the plot of the book. Actually the plot is OK but the main character comes off as stupid and peevish. I skipped to the end just to see how the author finished it. Every chapter is filled with off the wall comments by the main character. Will never purchase this author again. The ending is no better. What a waste of time.

only thing good was the narrator

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

someone who may like to listen to a crazy personalities ravings

Would you ever listen to anything by Joshua Spanogle again?

NO!!!!

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

he is great

What character would you cut from Isolation Ward?

the main character, but that was the whole book

Any additional comments?

spent the entire book listening the character complain, then in last few minutes it was done,a horrible

Clumsy & Predictable

I did manage to finish this book. It was narrated just fine, but the book itself was poorly constructed and overall not worth my time or money. Unbelievable plot combined with silly characters left me determined to write this review. I can't come up with a reason someone might want to read this, unless you are perhaps related to the author.

Disappointing

The plot was okay but the book moved agonizingly slow. Scott Brick's dry delivery only added to the punishment. I found the main character to be peevish and childish and by the end of the book I was anxious to put him out of my misery. I kept listening, hoping that it would get better, but it never did. I may try this author again, but only in an abridged version and not read by Scott Brick.

quarantine the narrator

did not finish the story. it
turns into a romance rather than a medical thriller