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BOOK REVIEW ‘Flashback’
40 San Antonio Medicine • June 2015
Written by Michael Palmer
Reviewed by Teresa C. Hayes, MD
The headline said, “‘Resistant’ by Michael Palmer, his last and 20th novel.” After surf-
ing the Internet, I realized that Michael Palmer, MD, died the year before last, at the
age of 71. Memories from the 1980s and ‘90s flooded my brain. My bedtime reading
materials, in those days, often were Palmer’s books. This prompted me to look up the
previous 19 books that he wrote and put them all on my reading list, as a tribute to his
memory. The San Antonio Public Library stocks 18 of them. I was not able to locate a
copy of “On Call: Original Short Story.”
Talk about can’t put a book down: Over the course of three months, book after book,
thriller after thriller, I read and, in some cases, re-read, all 18 books. What a roller-coaster
ride, absolutely thrilling and entertaining. Palmer’s first novel was “The Sisterhood,”
published in 1982. In his early career, Palmer published one novel every three years. He
then became quite prolific, publishing a novel every two years and later almost one a
year. As I read, I also noticed that the price of a paperback went from $5.99 in the 1980s
and early ‘90s to $9.99 currently. The backbone of all his novels is associated with med-
icine or occurring in a medical environment, which I can’t get enough of, even though
I have been spending most of my waking hours in a hospital environment for more than
30 years.
It is “Flashback,” the third novel Palmer published in 1988, that I like the best. It was
written with sincerity and passion. The story is believable, even after all these years, unlike
some of his later novels which seem too far-fetched and so cookie-cutter, on top of having
a political tilt to some of the events told in the stories. The plot can be summarized as
corporate versus community medicine, sibling rivalry, a pair of pathological liars (father
and son), and evildoers, mixed with a dose of romance. At the end, the community band-
ing together won over the corporation. The unfolding of the conspiracy began when a
young boy continued to suffer flashbacks related to his surgery, months after a “routine”
operation for hernia. The new doctor in town took an interest in the boy’s case (and the
boy’s mother), and subsequently uncovered a whole string of suspicious incidents linking
a successful surgeon and the anesthesiologist he always worked with. Twist after twist,
this book will keep you up even though you have a real hospital to go to in the morning.
By the way, if you are going to check out the author’s books, don’t make the mistake
I made. I checked out “The Thread” by a Michael Palmer and trust me, a thriller, it is
not. This Michael Palmer is a poet and, as far as I know, is alive and well. There is also
a Michael. A. Palmer, who authors naval histories, in case you come upon this name
during your search.
Teresa C. Hayes, MD, is a pediatric pathologist in San Antonio and a
BCMS member.