Book: Implant by F. Paul Wilson


A pretty good medical thriller, a bit slow to get going

F. Paul Wilson
Implant
Tor, 1995
ISBN: 0-812-54470-6
437 pages
Out of print; used copies appear to be plentiful and inexpensive

The main character in Implant is Gina Pancella, a newly-minted doctor who has returned to her native Washington D.C. from Louisiana and is doing the medical equivalent of various odd jobs while she hopes to become a legislative aide to someone in congress. She wants to do that because congress is about to start debating a far-reaching medical-reform bill. One of the jobs she's dong is assisting a famous plastic surgeon, Duncan Lathram, at his private clinic. He used to be a vascular surgeon and he's a hero to Gina since he once saved her life. One of the reasons that Dr Lathram does so well operating on Washington's rich and powerful is that healing from his operations is speeded by means of a (wait for it) implant that was invented by his medical-researcher brother. Dr Lathram has a grudge against certain politicians and he's acting about as suspiciously as possible. That Dr Pancella is dating an FBI agent turns out to be both a blessing and a curse, of course.

The book was published in 1995 and so the cultural references are a bit dated: cell phones are new and a character's being a coffee snob is meant to make him distinctive. But the only real problem that the book has is that it takes about 250 pages to get going. After that, the characters are playing a cat-and-mouse game, each trying to figure out what the others have figured out. That part is fun if you don't mind the wait to get to it.

Posted: Sat - September 19, 2009 at 09:20 PM   Main   Category: 

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