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A review by amothersmusings1
Deep Water by Christine Poulson
5.0
I won this book in the Goodreads Giveaways quite some time ago and would firstly like to apologise to the Giveaway host for my delayed review.
I haven't read many dedicated medical thrillers - the main one being Tim Adler's 'Slow Bleed' - and since this isn't a genre I would normally read I wasn't sure what to expect.
However, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I started reading "Deep Water" as I was immediately hooked by the compelling storyline and especially the opening prologue of a clinical trial going disastrously wrong.
I liked all of the great and very believable characters in the story, they were all so natural in their narrative and I thought little Chloe was delightful considering all she had to endure with blood transfusions etc at such a young age. The main protagonist - clinical researcher Katie Flanagan - was excellently portrayed and I'd love now to read her next adventure in the second book 'Cold, Cold Heart'.
The author, Christine Poulson has obviously carried out extensive research on clinical trials, lab work, scientific research and the legalities of patenting cures. What she hasn't done is overload the book with terminology that baffles the reader and has kept it to a basic level whilst still informing us about the scientific details of the plot.
I learned a lot about how there's a race between medical competitors to patent cures for diseases and produce medicine etc and really found this interesting. Chloe's blood diesease Diamond-Blackfan Anaemia was new to me and I found it sad what she had to endure just to stay alive. The moral dilemma over embryo selection was an interesting discussion to read between Katie and Chloe's mother Rachel. Also, the frustrations during scientific research must be very disheartening and it's good to see how dedicated researchers are at continually working at creating a cure despite the constant setbacks.
This is a cracking and intelligent thriller that I would love to see being made into a movie. I'm very surprised at some of the ambivalent reviews it's had as I thoroughly enjoyed it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend. It's entertaining, intriguing, original and with a fast paced climatic end it has everything a thriller should have to keep you reading way past your bedtime.
A brilliant 5 stars for a book I'd happily read again.
I haven't read many dedicated medical thrillers - the main one being Tim Adler's 'Slow Bleed' - and since this isn't a genre I would normally read I wasn't sure what to expect.
However, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I started reading "Deep Water" as I was immediately hooked by the compelling storyline and especially the opening prologue of a clinical trial going disastrously wrong.
I liked all of the great and very believable characters in the story, they were all so natural in their narrative and I thought little Chloe was delightful considering all she had to endure with blood transfusions etc at such a young age. The main protagonist - clinical researcher Katie Flanagan - was excellently portrayed and I'd love now to read her next adventure in the second book 'Cold, Cold Heart'.
The author, Christine Poulson has obviously carried out extensive research on clinical trials, lab work, scientific research and the legalities of patenting cures. What she hasn't done is overload the book with terminology that baffles the reader and has kept it to a basic level whilst still informing us about the scientific details of the plot.
I learned a lot about how there's a race between medical competitors to patent cures for diseases and produce medicine etc and really found this interesting. Chloe's blood diesease Diamond-Blackfan Anaemia was new to me and I found it sad what she had to endure just to stay alive. The moral dilemma over embryo selection was an interesting discussion to read between Katie and Chloe's mother Rachel. Also, the frustrations during scientific research must be very disheartening and it's good to see how dedicated researchers are at continually working at creating a cure despite the constant setbacks.
This is a cracking and intelligent thriller that I would love to see being made into a movie. I'm very surprised at some of the ambivalent reviews it's had as I thoroughly enjoyed it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend. It's entertaining, intriguing, original and with a fast paced climatic end it has everything a thriller should have to keep you reading way past your bedtime.
A brilliant 5 stars for a book I'd happily read again.