Guarded Prognosis

De: Richard L. Mabry MD

Narrado por: Bill Nevitt

Double-barreled trouble

When Dr. Caden Taggart saw the two men sitting in his waiting room, he didn’t think they were patients. He was right, and when they introduced themselves as agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency, things started to get bad.

Then Caden felt as though someone had gut-punched him when his father, Dr. Henry Taggart, told him he probably had carcinoma of the pancreas. When he talked about his son assisting with his suicide, Caden wondered how he could talk him out of that.

When he shared his news with his wife, Beth, she tried to assure Caden that God was in control. But as things progressed, he was unsure that was true. At first, he feared for his freedom. Then for his ability to cope. Eventually, he feared for his life.

©2018 Richard L. Mabry (P)2018 Richard L. Mabry

Doctors dilemmas

Caden Taggart and his father, Henry, are both surgeons. Caden's world is shaken when two DEA agents show up on his doorstep, claiming that someone in his practice has been falsely prescribing painkillers.

Meanwhile, Henry is facing a life-threatening prognosis while his wife/Caden's mother is in a coma following a brain aneurysm. At the start of Henry's possible diagnosis, he contemplates suicide and asks for Caden's assistance. Also, there seems to be several side characters that have money issues that might play into the story for both Caden and Henry.

The two storylines progress and there is action/thrills when Caden becomes more and more involved with the DEA's investigation. The story was entertaining but nothing too exciting or unusual. There really wasn't too much of a surprise at the ending, but it was still a good read. I will admit that it often read like a TV drama.

Some reviewers have complained about the overtly Christian theme to the book, but I liked this part of the story. When faced with life-threats, either in the form of danger or illness, people often turn (or return) to God.

The narrator, Bill Nevitt, did his usual outstanding job and added a lot to the enjoyment of the book. His voices for the different characters were great (even for the women!) and made the listening even better. I was provided an audio version of this book by the narrator and chose to review it.

Guarded Prognosis

Dr. Caden Taggert is being questioned by DEA agents about an extraordinary amount of narcotic prescriptions being prescribed by him. Although the DEA agents did not have a warrant to search the doctors' records or premises, Dr. Taggert gave them carte blanche to search the place and embed themselves into the practice.
While all of this is going on his father, Dr. Henry Taggert has been diagnosed with pancreatic carcinoma. Both father and son are headstrong males that want to do things their own way.
I found situations in the novel a bit simplistic and the younger Dr. Taggert nieve. With the epidemic of narcotic abuse, I found it a bit odd that the DEA numbers of the doctors were posted for anyone to see or that Caden wouldn't know a lawyer or have the common sense to call one when the DEA agents started asking questions.
The narration by Bill Nevitt was okay, nothing too great and not too bad, stilted at times and not much variation between character voices.

"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

Entertaining medical mystery

Guarded Prognosis is an easy listening story that’s a little bit slow in the beginning but picks up as it progresses. It entertains with themes of cancer, death, deceit, drugs, betrayal, Christianity and relationships. The narrator did a good job creating emotion and tension in the story and made it easy to distinguish who was talking. It is an easy listening story with some good twists and personal problems, but I did find the main character in the story somewhat naive. Any investigation of you or abuse of your prescribing number is a serious thing and you would have thought he would have sort legal advise, asked more questions or at least contacted his Medical Association for direction strait away. This aspect didn’t really detract from the story though, it was still an entertaining, enjoyable audiobook.

Very interesting

I really enjoyed this story. It had the right elements of mystery and danger. A nice touch was there were two separate mysteries for a son and father who are surgeons in different practices. The element of faith was wonderful. I received a complimentary audio and this review is voluntary.

Twists and turns!

Richard L Mabry creates high drama, tension in this medical mystery. I liked the religious overtones throughout the book.

Bill Nevitt brought the characters to life with his narration.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.