Steve Perry Immune Response

Immune Response

Steve Perry

Five Star, Feb 2006, $25.95, 323 pp.

ISBN: 15949144456

Physician's Assistant Rick Scales lives in a small Washington State town near the Makah Reservation. His physician Dr. Howard P. Reuben visits once a week delivering medication and signing charts that he never stops to read. Rick notices something odd happening to his terminally ill patients, such as Tom Inch's lung cancer that went into spontaneous remission. AIDS patient Jimmy Lewis died when his car crashed into the river, but an autopsy showed no trace of his illness.

More strange remissions occur, to include a leukemia sufferer and a liver diseased person, but both test healthy. Rick informs tribal deputy Jasmine Hughes what he has observed. They visit Howard, only to find him murdered in his home and his lab blown up. Now an unknown assailant targets Rick and Jasmine to insure what is going on at the Makah Reservation remains concealed, even as a former terminal patient has a blood test that reveals something unusual.

This medical thriller with science fiction elements will appeal to the fans of Robin Cook and Michael Palmer. The harassed heroes have a strange puzzle to resolve, at the same time someone wants to silence them permanently. There is plenty of action, a touch of romance, and a fine medical mystery that comes together to make a breathtaking suspense thriller.