The Second Opinion

By: Michael Palmer

Narrated by: Franette Liebow

Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Dr. Thea Sperelakis has always been an outsider. She has a brilliant medical mind and a remarkable ability to recall details, but her difficulty in dealing with hidden agendas and interpersonal conflicts has led her to leave the complex, money-driven dynamics of a hospital and to embrace working with the poor. Her father, Petros, is one of the most celebrated internal medicine specialists in the world and the founder of the cutting-edge Sperelakis Center for Diagnostic Medicine at Boston's sprawling, powerful Beaumont Clinic.

When Petros is severely injured by a hit-and-run driver, no one thinks he will survive. Two of Petros's other children, both physicians, battle Thea and their eccentric brother, Dimitri, by demanding that treatment for their father be withheld. Meanwhile, Petros lingers in the Beaumont Clinic's intensive care unit, where Thea is his only advocate.

As Thea uncovers the facts surrounding the disaster, it seems more and more to be no accident. Petros himself is the only witness. Who would want him dead? The answers are trapped in his brain...until he looks at Thea and begins to slowly blink a terrifying message.

In The Second Opinion, Michael Palmer has created a cat-and-mouse game where one woman must confront a conspiracy of doctors to uncover an evil practice that touches every single person who ever has a medical test. With unforgettable characters and twists and betrayals that come from the most unlikely places, The Second Opinion will keep you guessing...and looking over your shoulder.

©2009 Michael Palmer (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

First Michael Palmer book will be my last

What did you like best about The Second Opinion? What did you like least?

One of the trademarks of Asperger's Syndrome is poor social skills. Palmer did such a good job demonstrating this in the main character, that I found myself wishing she would just go away. She was so irritating that the love story sub plot was also completely unbelievable. I can't leave a book unfinished, but the tied-in-a-neat-little-bow-ending made me want to break my own rule.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Her Boston accents made me cringe.

Not good

This is one of the three or four books I had to stop listening to because the narration was so bad. I can only comment on the first half, but the plot wasn't much better than the narration. It seems Asperger's is the new popular thing to feature in novels, and that's fine when done right. This wasn't.

I kind of want my money back

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, the narrator is awful - her Boston accents come across as fake southern, the main character sounds like a robot and I can't tell the difference between male characters - they all sound like she's been eating gravel.
No - the plot at it's most basic level is pretty good but as it pans out is just stupid. Aspergers or no would it be a good idea to place all your doubts and even your life in the hands of an apparently TDF ex-cop that you've had a 15 minute conversation with? And ex-cop or not would you take your life savings to research the fears of said dependent Asperger sufferer? The whole love-story part was just DUMB. Not to mention the rediculous breaking and entering scene. Um, yeah, steal a cherry picker, cut the glass and then get away with it all? Doctors without Borders? Video games? 100 year old family home? Carriage House? Really?

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Not really, I was too distracted by the voices and love affairs.

How could the performance have been better?

Oh yeah. The narrator just about ruins the book.

Do you think The Second Opinion needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. I think the world has read all of this it needs to.

Any additional comments?

I'll probably finish it because, well, I bought it. But I will watch for this narrator and author in future purchases. I've read (in writing) some of Palmer's books before and they were - while far fetched - decent reads. But this one really falls flat.