Dead Wrong
| Dead Wrong | |
| Allen Wyler | |
| Astor + Blue Editions (2011) | |
| Rating: | ★★★☆☆ |
| Tags: | Fiction, Thrillers, Medical, Dead Wrong |
When a top secret program of implanting harrowing memories into innocent people comes to light, neurosurgeon Tom McCarthy is literally caught in the crossfire. While McCarthy looks forward to a three day weekend, his office is suddenly raided by two Department of Defense investigators bent on arresting him for a crime he didn’t commit. All hell breaks loose when an inadvertent scuffle escalates, leaving one agent dead at the hands of the other, and McCarthy fleeing but hopelessly trapped inside the labyrinthine corridors, heating ducts, and stairways of a gigantic Seattle medical center.With the CIA and Seattle PD closing in, McCarthy unwittingly pulls Dr. Sarah Hamilton into the fray. And like rats in a maze, they struggle to stay one step ahead of their deadly hunters, while simultaneously uncovering a trail of corruption that reaches shocking dimensions.Penned by master neurosurgeon, Allen Wyler, Dead Wrong brings the reader inside the world of an insidious and terrifyingly plausible narrative, to create a heart pounding, claustrophobic and nightmarish thriller.
Allen Wyler
is a renowned neurosurgeon who earned an international reputation for pioneering surgical techniques to record brain activity. He has served on the faculties of both the University of Washington and the University of Tennessee, and in 1992 was recruited by the prestigious Swedish Medical Center to develop a neuroscience institute. In 2002, he left active practice to become Medical Director for a startup med-tech company (that went public in 2006) and he now chairs the Institutional Review Board of a major medical center in the Pacific Northwest. Leveraging a love for thrillers since the early 70's, Wyler devoted himself to fiction writing in earnest, eventually serving as Vice President of the International Thriller Writers organization for several years. After publishing his first two medical thrillers
Deadly Errors
(2005) and
Dead Head
(2007), he officially retired from medicine to devote himself to writing full time. He and his wife, Lily, divide their time between Seattle and the San Juan Islands.
Praise for Allen Wyler’s Thrillers
“The book is a thriller on par with the novels of
ROBIN COOK
and
MICHAEL CRICHTON
.”
—
Tuscon Citizen
“
DEAD END DEAL
is a medical thriller of the highest order, reviving the genre with a splendid mixture of innovation and cutting-edge timeliness. Neurosurgeon Allen Wyler knows of what he writes, and the result is a thriller that equals and updates the best of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton. His latest is terrifying, riveting, and a masterpiece of science and suspense.”
—Jon Land, best-selling author of
STRONG AT THE BREAK
“
DEAD END DEAL
by Allen Wyler is a masterful medical thriller, intelligent, ferociously paced, scary as hell, ripping with suspense, and filled with fascinating (and horrific) details that only a neurosurgeon-turned-writer like Wyler could provide. If you like the medical thrillers of Robin Cook or Michael Crichton, you will absolutely love
DEAD END DEAL
.”
—Douglas Preston, author of
THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE
and co-creator of the
PENDERGAST NOVELS
“The gritty, graphic details of cutting-edge surgical procedures, capped with an exciting conclusion, should keep fans of the genre riveted.”
—Publishers Weekly
“With its lightning-paced excitement and fascinating science,
DEAD HEAD
has everything you could hope for in a medical thriller!”
—Tess Gerritsen, author of
THE MEPHISTO CLUB
“In the tradition of Robin Cook, Wyler takes us behind the scenes to show us things the medical establishment doesn’t want us to see.
DEAD RINGER
builds a high-speed plot on a startling but all-too-plausible premise. This is the stuff nightmares are made of.”
—Joseph Finder, New York Times Bestselling Author of
PARANOIA
and
BURIED SECRETS
“The suspense builds and builds in this riveting page-turner. It’s a skillful merging of the medical thriller and political thriller … Tom Clancy meets Tess Gerritsen!”
—Kevin O’Brien, New York Times Bestselling Author of
THE LAST VICTIM
and
KILLING SPREE
“You’ll be asking the nurse to swab your forehead when you’re admitted into this tense medical thriller exposing
DEADLY ERRORS.
Wyler does for hospitals what Benchley did for the ocean.”
—Joe Moore, co-author of the international best seller
THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY
“Wyler writes a fast-paced thriller, which reawakens your scariest misgivings about the Medical-Industrial Complex and the profit motive corrupting the art of healing.”
—Darryl Ponicsan, author of
THE LAST DETAIL
“
DEADLY ERRORS
has a fascinating and frightening premise that gives it the potential to be a best seller in the Robin Cook mold.”
—William Dietrich, author of
HADRIAN’S WALL
“This is an ‘up all night’ pass into troubled places that only hardworking doctors know about; a turbulent world of trusting patients and imperfect humans struggling with the required image of perfection. Only a gifted surgeon like Allen Wyler could craft such a wild and wonderful best-of-the-breed medical thriller!”
—John J. Nance, author of
PANDORA’S CLOCK
and
FIRE FLIGHT
“Wyler’s debut novel is both an engrossing thriller and a cautionary tale of the all-too-frequent intersection of high technology and higher greed. It’s a message all of us better pay attention to, or face the consequences.”
—Mark Olshaker, author of
EINSTEIN’S BRAIN, UNNATURAL CAUSES,
and
THE EDGE;
co-author of
MINDHUNTER, JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS
A
LLEN
W
YLER
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
DEAD WRONG
Astor + Blue Editions LLC
Copyright © 2012 by Allen Wyler
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by:
Astor + Blue Editions, LLC
New York, NY 10003
Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data
Wyler, Allen. DEAD WRONG—1st ed.
ISBN: 978-1-938231-17-9 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-938231-15-5 (epub)
ISBN: 978-1-938231-16-2 (epdf)
1. Neurosurgeon Doctor—Thriller—Fiction 2. Police manhunt in medical center—Fiction 3. Government Corruption—Fiction 4. Implantation of highly stressful memories—Fiction 5. Experimental Brain Operations for psychological warfare—Fiction 6. Seattle (Wash)—Fiction 7. American Love Story I. Title
Book Design: Bookmasters
Jacket Cover Design: Ervin Serrano
Dedication
P
ROLOGUE
EATTLE
B
OBBIE BAKER JOLTED wide awake from a warm, floating sleep, heart pounding, skin prickling, a vague hollowness in her gut warning of something … wrong. What? Someone in the house? She listened to a jet roar overhead on its approach into Seattle-Tacoma International. From the living room an announcer hawked malt shop love songs from the wonderful fifties: CD or tape, $19.95. No other sounds.
Oh, shit!
“Jordan?” The bottom dropped out of her stomach.
Shit, shit, shit
. She’d intended to rest her eyes only for a moment.
“Jordan?” Louder this time. Pushing away the twisted sheets and blanket with her strong arm she glanced around the bedroom. Jordan’s toys … where were they?
“Jordan!”
Breathing hard from the effort, she rolled onto her good side, dropped both legs over the edge of the bed, and pushed up to sitting, her right arm no help at all. “Goddamn it.” With her soles firmly on carpet she paused for the dancing black holes to dissolve from her vision, wiped her face, and finger combed her short damp hair in a useless attempt at some order.
Other than Jordan’s missing toys, the bedroom looked exactly as it had before she nodded off. Yet, something wasn’t right. What? Ah shit: The accordion-style kiddy gate wasn’t there, leaving the hall open to the living room. “Jordan!” It wasn’t like him to not answer, unless he was playing hide-and-seek. Sliding off the sheet onto her hand and knees, she peered under the bed. Not there.
With the help of her cane, she limped to the closet, slid open the door, and found only clothes, shoes, and the laundry hamper.
In the living room the television remained on the same channel, everything in place just as she’d left it, except for Jordan’s toys. Frantic now, she shuffled to the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and finally Trent’s small home office. No Jordan. No toys.