Showing results by author "Lawrence W Gold" in All Categories

Doctor Joseph Polk is an intelligent, charismatic, and a powerful member of the medical staff at Brier Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he's killing his patients. No gun, knife, poison or drug injected into their intravenous tubing, common plot lines in medical thrillers, and he doesn't plan to kill them. They die anyway because this once brilliant physician, a functional psychopath for most of his career, has decompensated.

Death at Brier Hospital is routine and provides the perfect opportunity to murder and get away with it. Jacob Weizman, a physician, and his wife, Lola, a psychotherapist, are Holocaust survivors and need no proof of evil in this world. Jacob and Lola are unique protagonists. They're octogenarians who take the fear out of getting old. Their intelligence, competence, humor, and sense of history make them appealing in a world that too often disdains the aged.

Arnie Roth, a family practitioner, develops viral encephalitis. He awakens from the near-death experience with a new appreciation for life and an unexpected talent, his sensitivity to smell has increased a thousandfold. The Sixth Sense is highly entertaining, thought provoking, and a touching journey through a world that influences us every day, but one that we know too little about.

Millie Goodheart, the chief librarian in Emeryville, California, survived a child’s nightmare; savage abuse at the hands of her father, a brutal, violent drunk. She swore never again, and chose for her life mate Henry Goodheart, a gentle giant who promised a loving, safe, and secure life, but ultimately her nightmare recurred as Henry changed from savior to abuser. No person, no woman escapes the residual effects of such violence and she eventually reaches the fateful and climactic moment of her life: to surrender or finally stand up for herself and for her daughters.

Sara, a young, previously healthy woman and a missionary, arrives at Brier Hospital with a rash and low-grade fever. In minutes, the rash erupts into destructive skin lesions, and Sara goes into shock. Is this an undiagnosed infectious disease, or is Sara the victim of a biological weapon?

Lisa Cooke is the product of a passive mother and an abusive father. She finds her way into pediatric nursing, a world filled with men in control, especially the director of the Neonatal ICU, Mike Cooper. As Mike reminds Lisa of her father, it's no surprise that they don't get along. Ultimately, they fall in love and have a fulfilling marriage except that she's unable to have children. They try everything, but fail. When an automobile accident severely injures Mike, Lisa is devastated. Shortly afterward, she discovers that she's pregnant.

When nature, in her ultimate act of irony, strikes Richard Powell, a cancer specialist, with malignant melanoma, a highly aggressive form of cancer, his wife, Terri devotes her life to curing the disease that ultimately kills her husband.

Denise Berg, a professor of psychology, and her molecular biologist husband, Gabe, expected an intelligent child. When Denise gave birth to Zack, they were thrilled. They were not surprised to find that Zack had physical and mental gifts but were astounded by their magnitude. By every parameter Zack was extraordinarily gifted, and they took pride in their genes and their good fortune.

An incidental and shocking discovery of a cave with tiny unmarked graves shatters the peace of Exton, a small town in upstate N.Y. More horrifying is the forensic analysis that reveals that these young children died needlessly as the result of neglect and abuse at the hands of a religious fundamentalist cult that disavows medical care. Evangelicals and their political action groups come to the defense of the cult and the parents of the dead children setting the stage for the final courtroom clash to come.

Out of Darkness deals with the abhorrent problem of human trafficking, the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the 21st century, ranking second after drug smuggling. There are more young American girls entering the commercial sex industry; an estimated 300,000 at this moment; and their ages have been dropping drastically; the average starting age is an alarming 13.

If you enjoy thoughtful medical fiction, take a look at The Doctors' Lounge: A Brier Hospital Novel that helps the listener understand the ethical issues that take their toll on medical personnel, patients, and their families. A catchier title may have made the novel more appealing, however I chose accuracy first.

When normal people suddenly attack and murder, their defense attorney hires Dr. Michael Rose - a former cop turned forensic psychiatrist - and his associate Karen Scott to represent them in court. The inexplicable events mystify these experienced professionals, and together they seek a rational explanation. When psychiatric evaluation reveals a pattern among the subjects, Michael suspects that there is more to these incidents than spontaneous psychosis.

Isabel Kramer's dream of running competitively, frustrated since age 17, reveals itself when, on a lark, she joins her daughter in the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco. Now age 60, Izzy challenges her misgivings, the sage and well-intentioned advice of family and friends, and prepares for long-distance running. Izzy, a psychiatrist and professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, has no illusions about the likelihood of success and the possibility of injury, but amazingly, she outperforms expectations.

Deadly Passage is a multi-layered, high seas, adventure-thriller audiobook of bioterrorism in a post-9/11 world. The audiobook operates on several levels not commonly encountered in a high-octane thriller, including insights into the terrorists, their backgrounds, rationale, and subtle conflicts within the communities from which they have been drawn that ultimately condition their decisions and actions. The responses of US governmental agencies mirror these diverse perspectives.