The Surgeon

Subject: The Surgeon Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:30 am

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Okay, our other pick for July is a thriller, a combination of medical and police drama. In other words, a good summer beach read. XD Here's a synopsis for it:

Quote :

A serial killer is on the loose in Boston. The victims are killed in a particularly nasty way: cut with a scalpel on the stomach, the intestines and uterus removed, and then the throat slashed. The killer obviously has medical knowledge and has been dubbed "the Surgeon" by the media. Detective Thomas Moore and his partner Rizzoli of the Boston Homicide Unit have discovered something that makes this case even more chilling. Years ago in Savannah a serial killer murdered in exactly the same way. He was finally stopped by his last victim, who shot him as he tried to cut her. That last victim is Dr. Catherine Cordell, who now works as a cardiac surgeon at one of Boston's prestigious hospitals. As the murders continue, it becomes obvious that the killer is drawing closer and closer to Dr. Cordell, who is becoming so frightened that she is virtually unable to function. But she is the only person who can help the police catch this copycat killer. Or is it a copycat? To complicate matters even further, Detective Moore, often referred to as Saint Thomas as he continues to mourn the loss of his wife, is getting emotionally involved with the doctor.

The suspense in The Surgeon is almost unbearable. The writing is superb and the stunning twists and turns make it almost impossible to put down. -- Otto Penzler

I've already started reading, and in fact I'm almost done. It's hard to put down!!

Subject: Re: The Surgeon Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:10 pm

I finished the book over a week ago, even though I tried to read it slowly! It was pretty well written, and I thought the characters were believable, they weren't just one dimensional. I would have liked to learn more about The Surgeon, and the man that inspired his murder spree, but I liked that the killer wasn't just one of the already introduced characters (I'm still pissed about the Rene situation in Dead Until Dark but mostly because I love the actor in the True Blood series). The pace was really good as well, it made it really hard to put down the book. Thriller's are a dime a dozen but it takes a good writer to really draw you in. Interestingly enough the author used to write romance novels... lol

On the other hand, I thought the medical jargon was a bit eyes glazed over, and I could have done without the "she's the most brilliant doctor in the world" scenes. And at first I wasn't sure if I was rooting for Saint Thomas to hook up with doctor lady or Rizzoli. But I cared enough to buy the second book featuring Rizzoli, called the Apprentice, where I guess the Surgeon gets his own personal fan. She's in I think a total of four or five books. While I don't necessarily love her character, I find her interesting. I'm also taking another Tess Gerritson book to the beach as well, Bone Garden. Her books have that easy, enthralling beach read vibe to them. The plot wasn't so murky that I couldn't follow it, or lost track of characters and motives. I didn't fry my brain trying to figure out who the killer was. I simply read and read to get to the end.

What did you guys think of Rizzoli? She was pretty abrasive, but given her history it's understandable. I was proud of her for standing up to her parents, but I was angry that she overreacted to situation with Thomas and Cordell. I realize that part of that was jealousy but that just makes it worse. And the scene where Rizzoli killed the rapist, thinking he was the Surgeon, was curious. It gave a lot of in sight not only into Rizzoli, but into any cop desperate to solve a case and make a name for themselves. I feel that Thomas was in the right to tell on her, because it's a slippery slope between being good cop and taking justice into your own hands.

I really liked the glimpses into the mind of the Surgeon, and the little history lessons he was so good at imparting. Gruesome, but interesting. I thought it was a brilliant move on his part to enter the hospital floor as a female and departing a male. But of course, like every crazy killing bastard he made his mistakes.

I really like the movie Copycat- with Holly Hunter, Sigourney Weaver and my love, Dermot Mulroney. I even have the book-based-on-the-movie tie in. For whatever reason I linked Rizzoli to Holly Hunt's character in Copycat, which might be the reason I'm interested in reading more about her character. And of course I'm hoping Det. Moore will pop up in later books as I love him. I also hope he and Cordell make it as a couple. Sadly, as Speed 2 has shown, most relationships started under tense situations don't last. But I can hope!

Midnighter Posts : 101 Join date : 2008-07-14

I'm about half way thru and I got it from the library after much searching on Thursday. That's a downfall of moving, for sure. Another is that while I'm reading this book, I feel a little more paranoid. I knew I wouldn't be watching movies like 28 Days Later while I'm in Arkansas alone b/c I'd get really paranoid and this book does the same thing to a lesser extent. Mainly I just make sure my door is still locked more often. I do like the book though. It's crazy and kinda sick. But I'm okay with that. Right now I think it is the doctor who was supposed to be on call for Catherine's b-day, but had "car trouble". We'll see. I also think he might attack the lady cop, that it might be a woman who is killing, it could be Catherine/her split personality, or it could be a relative of the original serial killer, like in the 2nd Die Hard. Kinda. I'm gonna stop guessing now and keep reading. No, I didn't read any previous responses b/c I don't like spoilers.

P.S. The job is going well. I'm high seller right now, which is a good thing and pisses the other people in my training group off Smile

Too bad, we all have the same opportunity. This is good b/c the boss man looks at this. We only have to sell every other Saturday, but it still sucks since we don't get paid any extra for it. But we do get a whole 5% commission on our net sales!!! Have a good week guys.

Subject: Re: The Surgeon Wed Jul 29, 2009 1:29 pm

I haven't finished yet either. I had planned on finishing it over this past weekend but I ended up leaving it at work. Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow on my day off because I am about halfway through and totally into it so I could see me sitting down starting to read and not putting the book down til I'm done.
But I just wanted to add, that my theory is that Andy wasn't the real killer in the beginning. I do think that he was probably rough with Catherine and had intentions of maybe raping her. But I don't think he was the original Surgeon. I can't really put together yet how that would work, but I just don't see him being the same guy. And I'm hoping that the Surgeon isn't the doctor that was supposed to take Catherine out for her birthday. It just seems so weird that in the beginning the killer was a fellow doctor and it's the same situation this time around. Although I don't think Andy was the actually killer, Catherine does, so it would just be too weird for her to be attacked by 2 fellow doctors.
I do like your theory about something happening to the female cop though. It would make since because the author really plays up the fact that males don't really see her as being feminie, so I could see the author using that to misdirect your attention and then she ends up getting attacked.
Yeah I will deffinatly have to finish this book up tomorrow!

Midnighter Posts : 101 Join date : 2008-07-14

My new theory is that it's a pharmacist. It has to be someone who is seen by many and has access to lots of patient information. I don't think it's Peter either, and I had considered that Andy was a decoy too. Some serial killers have partners, and others wait for a while before acting again. So I don't know, but it's interesting.

Today I want to know where I will be transferred to, and am thinking about renting/buying a house. Some are really cheap, but I don't want a dump. I don't do fixing-up. This is because I want a dog and I found a cute one called Boots on petfinder.com. However, I'm worried about leaving a dog alone all day and don't know if I can go from 0 to 2 dogs so that one can have a friend. Ah well, maybe I'll get a fish.

Midnighter Posts : 101 Join date : 2008-07-14

Oh Poo!! Got $100 from Mike Dillard today. But, I seem to be a pariah amongst my coworkers now. I feel guilty, but $100 richer.

Subject: Re: The Surgeon Tue Aug 11, 2009 6:36 pm

So today, the girl I was supposed to work with called in sick...again.
She was late to work on friday because she said she spent the night before throwing up. Then, she stayed on friday for a couple of hours and then went home because she said she really wasn't feeling well. She was off saturday, we were closed sunday, she was off monday and now here it is tuesday and she called in sick. Can somebody say, 6 day weekend? Yeah, I'm sure you are real sick Suspect

I'm not saying that she wasn't sick to start with, but if you have been sick for almost a week, so sick you have to call in to work and say you can' move, wouldn't you be calling the doctor at somepoint. Maybe it is just me, but I have to be on my deathbed kind of sick before I call into work, so if I'm sick more than one day to the point where I'm calling in you better believe you'll find me at the doctor's office. And don't think for a second it is because my sence of duty or need to pull my own weight and not let the team down because of my strong work ethic! Please, I just need the money, I can't afford to call in!
Enough venting!
Since I am alone today I thought I would take the oppurtunity to make at least one of my postings, I happen to have The Surgeon with me. RIWAF is at home though so you'll have to wait for that posting but I hope you all loved it as much as I did!
I liked the Surgeon. Some of the chapters that took you into the killer's mind, I thought were a little boring. Not so much when he was stalking the girls or about to attack some one, those parts were interesting and intense. I just didn't like all the parts where he starts rambeling about the Trojan war or Aztec rituals. Boring!!! Sleep

Sometimes, in real life, people kill just to kill. Because they are sick and twisted and disturb people who get some kind of a thrill out of the power, so i get a little frustrated in movies and books when the killer is doing it because of some ancient tribal worship or whatever. I think it is frustrating because it kind of lessons the believable factor for me. Although, I did see an E! True Hollywood Special about Spring Break, where this blue eyed blond haired white boy was kidnapped down in Mexico because some drug lords needed to scalp him and use him for a sacrifice to please the spirits that protected their marajuana crops. So I guess it's not that far out of reality. But I still feel like that form of a motive is far more rare compared to "I just needed to kill someone and so and so was right there"
I really didn't like Rizzoli. I just thought she was a whinny bitch. "oh everybody feel sorry for me because I'm a woman and you don't know how hard my life is. Nobody notices me...nobody cares about me...blah blah blah" I liked her in the beginning, or more accurately I was trying really hard to like her in the beginning. When it started to reveal that she might be interested in Moore, I tried to picture them all as the leads in Legal Eagels. I loved that movie!!!! Moore was Robert Redford who was an atractive older guy who was being paired with an atractive partner, Debra Winger, who he doesn't really notice at first because she is so comsumed by her job and he's to busy focusing on the beautiful victim; Catherine played by Daryl Hannah. This went a long way towards helping me like Rizzoli. But as soon as she killed that one guy and got all mad at Moore for not covering for her, I realized she was no Debra Winger and was glad she was barely in the story after that, at least not until the end.
I liked Catherine. Not really much to say about her though. I'm glad she fought. I never suspected her as the killer, and I am really glad that it turned out to be someone she knew but not someone she was close to.
I liked Moore. He was a straight up good guy. I liked that him and Catherine hooked up but I'm not too thrilled by the idea of them ending up together. I think I would have liked it better if he went to see her at the hospital when it was all over and they just looked at each other and said, "Wow, you know I think what we shared was a great catalyst to move us forward in our lives" "Yeah, you were what I needed to get over my dead wife" "You were what I needed to feel safe and to know I could learn to trust again" "Yes, but a catalyst isn't ment to last." "No, it's not." "I'm going to go call Rizzoli" "Oh, yeah, tell her hi for me and would you send Peter back in on your way out" "Sure thing"
That to me would have been much more believable.
I mean, as much as I didn't like Rizzoli, I thought she was a better match for Moore in the end. But then again I'm a big fan of opposite's attracting Surprised

The one thing that bothered me about Moore though was his name. Ugh that really irritated me!!! Mad

When you are an author and you are about to name your characters. Usually the only time you give them a name people associate with something else is because you want that to reveal something about their personality that you may not pick up on otherwise. So I assumed she named him Thomas Moore because she wanted us to associate him with Saint Thomas More. Saint Thomas More was a politician but he is most known for writing Utopia. Now Moore, in the book, didn't stand out to me as a guy fighting for the lower class, I mean he was a good guy don't get me wrong but there was nothing about his personality that really related him back to the ideas people associate with Saint Thomas More. That leaves me with the only other option, she named him Thomas Moore so that she could include the part where everyone mocks him by calling him Saint. But to me that was just bad writing, it wasn't clever at all. Anyone, who is a good person can have the nickname of "Saint" that isn't very original. There doesn't have to be an actually "Saint Courtney" for people to mock me by calling me Saint. And if it is said sarcastically and meant to be mocking and teasing, than yeah I'd be insulted too. If all she wanted was for people to insult him by calling him Saint she could have used anybody or nobody and just had people call him that. I don't know, it just bothered me because I thought she was going somewhere with that whole thing and when she went nowhere with it, it pissed me off. I was like, "What was the point then!"
Anyway, In the end I really did like the book all though I would have changed the ending. There was one part I was reading out at my parents house and I was gasping and my sister kept laughing at me. But I don't remember what...hmm, it was somewhere towards the end but even flipping through it now I don't remember what it was. oh, well.