Brainwaves
Wealth and power often come at a price, and forensic pathologist Joanna Blalock, the Crossing Jordan-like heroine of Leonard Goldberg's Brainwaves, knows all too well how deadly that price can be. Noted neurologist Karen Crandell's death is the latest in a string of tragedies that have befallen the Los Angeles Memorial Medical Center, and once again, Joanna and her boyfriend, Detective Jake Sinclair, are on the case. Goldberg (Fatal Care, etc.) devotes the first half of the novel to demonstrating Joanna's brilliance-she flaunts her observational skills while performing an autopsy and upstages a fellow pathologist in the midst of the investigation. Fortunately, the story snowballs when a second doctor turns up dead and an attempt is made on Joanna's life. Goldberg's pedestrian prose impedes the narrative, but his exploration of technologies that can potentially repair, alter and control the brain is both fascinating and frightening.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.