Flashback

Toby's operation was routine - a complete success. Why then ten months later is the eight year old repeatedly bursting into tortured screams - reliving every horrific, excrutiating detail of the surgery - while he is awake? And he's not the only one.... But can hospital-newcomer, neurosurgeon Zak Iverson discover what is going on at Ultramed before the next patient literally dies of fright? With its pacey narrative, fascinating medical procedural insight, a glamorous surgeon-hero battling at great personal risk to discover the truth, a feisty love interest and the underlying tension between the thrust of commerce and the checks of medical ethics, Flashback bears all the hallmarks of vintage Palmer. Readers might therefore be surprised to learn that this is in fact one of his earlier novels, first published in 1988 but not previously available outside the US. While not quite up to the near-heart-stopping tension of The Patient, Flashback will enthrall all fans - provided, of course, they are not about the undergo surgery. (Kirkus UK)