Mercy
A Novel
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Dr. Julie Devereux is an outspoken advocate for the right to die –until a motorcycle accident leaves her fiancé, Sam Talbot, a quadriplegic. Sam begs to end his life, but Julie sees hope in a life together. With the help of an organization that opposes physician-assisted suicide, Julie has Sam coming around to her point of view when he suddenly dies from an unexpected heart attack. An autopsy reveals that Sam died of an unusual heart defect, one seen only in those under extreme stress –in fact, it appears that Sam had been literally scared to death.
As Julie investigates similar cases, she finds a frightening pattern…and finds herself the target of disturbing threats. The more cases Julie discovers, the more the threats escalate, until she is accused of a mercy killing of her own. To clear her name and save her career, she must track down whoever is behind these mysterious deaths...but time is running out as someone has decided that killing Julie is the only way to stop her.
A riveting medical thriller, Mercy will leave readers breathless with twists and turns leading up to its explosive conclusion, from New York Times bestselling author Michael Palmer and his son, acclaimed suspense novelist Daniel Palmer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Boston doctor Julie Devereux, a divorced mother and the heroine of this outstanding second posthumous collaboration (after 2015's Trauma) between Daniel Palmer and his father, Michael (1942 2013), is on the verge of marrying the love of her life, Sam Talbot. But everything changes when Sam is left a quadriplegic after a motorcycle accident. Sam's requests that Julie let him die place her in an especially difficult spot, as she has been a passionate advocate of death with dignity. Tragically, just as Sam begins to be receptive to a support group for the paralyzed, he dies from a heart attack. Baffled by this turn of events, Julie turns sleuth, only to find that something disturbing is going on at her hospital, something the reader has known since the prologue, which depicts an unnamed doctor administering a fatal dose of medication to a patient he considers to have "no business living." Ample, plausible twists combined with well-developed characters add up to a superior thriller that grapples with the ethics of euthanasia.