Isolation Ward, Joshua Spanogle
Isolation Ward, Joshua Spanogle
4 Rating(s)
List: $14.98 | Sale: $10.49
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Isolation Ward

Author: Joshua Spanogle

Narrator: Christian Rummel

Abridged: 5 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/28/2006


Synopsis

Straight out of today’s hospitals and labs–and tomorrow’s headlines–comes a frightening, scalpel-sharp thriller from medical insider Joshua Spanogle. In an astounding debut, Spanogle takes us on an all-too-real race against time…as a young doctor enters the dark side of scientific research, desperate to stop a terrifying epidemic before it is too late….

In Baltimore’s St. Raphael’s Hospital, three newly admitted patients are among society’s most helpless citizens: female residents of Baltimore’s group homes for the mentally impaired, their bodies racked by a virus the likes of which no one at St. Raphael’s has ever seen.

Dr. Nathaniel McCormick is one of the first on the scene. A young investigator from the Centers for Disease Control, Nate is paid to explore the bizarre, the exotic, and the baffling–from superviruses to bioterrorism. But as soon as Nate begins to investigate the lives and habits of the victims, he knows something is terribly wrong. Using all his skills as a medical detective, Nate soon zeroes in on the “vector”–the one person who had sexual contact with the first victims. And when that suspect is found murdered, Nate fears that the disease he’s chasing may not be an act of nature, but of man.

With his brash style angering his superiors and fellow investigators alike, Nate turns to an old colleague and former lover, Dr. Brooke Michaels, for help. Together the two investigators follow a twisting trail of clues to a discovery that is at once groundbreaking and unspeakable. And as a circle of treachery tightens around him, Nate is about to confront the most chilling revelation of all–and a past Nate himself has been trying to escape.

At once a taut medical thriller and a riveting psychological portrait of a young doctor on the edge, Isolation Ward is a tale of runaway tension–with a brilliant “what-if” premise that is harrowing…heartbreaking…and impossible to wrench from your imagination.

About The Author

Joshua Spanogle is currently a student at Stanford Medical School. A graduate of Yale University, he has also served as a senior researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. He is at work on his second medical thriller, Growth Factor, which Delacorte will publish in 2007.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Debra on June 03, 2015

I wanted to jump in and review this book even before finishing. I can't begin to tell you how hard it is for a book to capture my interest right from the very start and keep it all through to the end. This was fascinating. Definitely for those who love medical stories with tons of terminology. It wa......more

Goodreads review by Cynthia on December 09, 2016

Ha ha after my last discourse on only finishing books I really like here is a 2 star rating. It was okay. It was exciting enough that I wanted to finish it but I didn't really care about the characters and Robin Cook does it better anyway. Besides, the older I get the less I want to read books set i......more

Goodreads review by Angel on September 17, 2015

Another ok book, predictable. I wouldn't re read it nor will I set out to find a second book (if there is one)......more

Goodreads review by Henri on November 22, 2019

Isolation Ward is an excellent medical thriller, on one of my favourite topics, infections diseases. It's well executed and reminds me of a combination of the best parts of Richard Preston & Robin Cook. It begins with an undetermined disease presenting in a handful of patients who happen to be from......more

Goodreads review by Ruth on January 10, 2021

This was entertaining but easy to put down until the very end. I’m a retired ICU nurse so I enjoyed the medical slant but don’t know if non-medical people would enjoy it. The storyteller is a young inspector from the CDC and his dark humor sometimes is a little over the top, making jokes in dangerou......more


Quotes

"Combines a wonderfully flawed yet stereotypically smart-ass hero with a plot that moves as rapidly as a lethal virus."—Entertainment Weekly, grade A-

"[A] tightly woven debut thriller.... engrossing and intellectually wrought.—Kirkus Reviews, starred review