Isolation Ward: Summary and book reviews of Isolation Ward by Joshua Spanogle, plus links to an excerpt from Isolation Ward and a biography of Joshua Spanogle.
Isolation Ward
by Joshua Spanogle
Hardcover: Feb 2006,
400 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2007,
624 pages.
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.
The action moves at fever pitch, with beautiful women, a really, really nasty villain, lots of medical lingo and liberal amounts of gratuitous violence from which our protagonist recovers with miraculous speed. Medical thriller aficionados wake up - there's a new player in town! (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Entertainment Weekly
Combines a wonderfully flawed yet stereotypically smart-ass hero with a plot that moves as rapidly as a lethal virus."—Entertainment Weekly, grade A-
The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson
Joshua Spanogle's first novel is a smart, fast-paced medical thriller ... To know a profession cold and to be a born writer is a rare blessing. Scott Turow also comes to mind.
Book Reporter
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.
Publishers Weekly
Spanogle is a funny, smart and skilled writer at the beginning of what readers will hope is a long and prolific career.
Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. Readers of this engrossing and intellectually wrought first novel will happily await Spanogle's next.
Our hero, Dr.
Nathaniel (Nate) McCormick,
describes himself as "an officer in
the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a
branch of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention...part of the
Special Pathogens Branch, which is
in the Division of Viral and
Rickettsial Diseases".
Does such an organization exist?
Absolutely!
The Epidemic Intelligence Service
(EIS) was established in 1951
following the start of the Korean
War as an early warning system
against biological warfare and
man-made epidemics. Today, it has
expanded into a surveillance and
response unit for all types of
epidemics, including chronic disease
and injuries.
The Special Pathogens Branch,
part of The Division of Viral
and Rickettsial Diseases, deals with...
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