Dead Head

Medical Thriller

Dr. Russell Lawton has just completed an objective he's spent years working toward, making a speech and sharing his research at a prominent conference for neurosurgeons. Lawton's research is in the field of brain-computer interfaces, and his work shows promise. He has been able to have monkeys move robotic arms with their brain waves.

Flush with success after the talk,, he relaxes and then, his world changes. He is kidnapped by terrorists. Worse, they inform him that they have kidnapped his daughter and will kill her if he doesn't do what they want. What they want is for him to help them communicate with another of the men in their network. The terrorists are planning a major attack on American soil, but this man, who plays a key role, has been involved in a car accident and is not expected to live.

Their plan is to have Lawton take custody of the patient, and if he shows signs of not being able to survive, to use his research to help them extract the knowledge they need. If the body dies, they want to sever the head and keep it alive, with Dr. Lawton using his research to translate the brain waves into speech. Is this possible?

Lawton is caught in a vise. Either help the terrorists destroy his nation, or refuse and lose his daughter to murder. Faced with her death, he agrees to help the terrorists. But when the FBI find out about his daughter's abduction and come to question him, he establishes a line of communication with them. Can Lawton keep the patient alive long enough to save his daughter and for the FBI to foil the terrorist attack?

This book is recommended for thriller readers. The action starts immediately and each chapter rackets up the suspense. The reader is taken along on a careening journey, unsure how it will all work out. The author is a surgeon himself, so the medical terms and procedures are correct and logical. Readers won't be disappointed if they are reading for a thrill--this book packs a powerful punch.

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Unique and exciting medical thriller

The phrase spine tingling takes on a whole new meaning in the medical thriller DEAD HEAD. This fast-paced story spans the country and thrusts NIH research neurosurgeon Russell Lawton into a desperate battle against time, terrorists and the Feds to save his young daughter, Angela. No less desperate is a cell of Middle Eastern extremists, who threaten to bury the child alive. The leader of the cell, a ruthless former battlefield surgeon, forces Russell to use his strictly theoretical research in brain-body synthesis in a frantic attempt to keep a gravely wounded comrade alive long enough to complete his deadly assignment. Closing in from the other side is savvy FBI Special Agent Sandra Phillips. Brought into what appears to be a parental custody dispute between Russell and his former wife, the agent soon realizes that something much larger and far more sinister is going on. In less skilled hands this chilling 'what if' story could have easily fallen flat, but the author, himself a neurosurgeon, takes an utterly unfathomable concept and makes it completely feasible. As Russell fights to save his daughter, the reader is swept up in a nightmare scenario where medical boundaries and personal safety take a back seat to one man's courage and ingenuity.

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A Frightening Look at a Possible Terrorist Scenario

Russell Lawton is a neurosurgeon who works for the NIH and is presenting a paper on his research at a medical meeting. His special interest area is brain-computer connections. He is kidnapped by Muslim terrorists and is forced to help them preserve the body and brain of one of their critically injured colleagues. His daughter's life is in the balance, along with the brother of his assistant, whose life is also threatened. He must devise a way to let the injured terrorist speak to his co-conspirators, even if his head is separated from his body and preserved. Dr. Lawton overcomes obstacle after obstacle in his need to have his daughter spared a horrible death. The action and plot are non-stop and grab you from the moment you read the first few pages. The ending is somewhat of a surprise and is well written.

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superb medical thriller

In Georgetown Medical Center in Washington DC, Mohammed, an automobile accident victim likely to die, is being treated. His comrades paid $50,000 in cash for him to have the best care and since also he looks Muslim, the FBI is notified. Across the country at the San Francisco Moscone Convention Center, neurosurgeon Russell Lawton is kidnapped by Muslims after giving a speech on his research. The abductors know Mohammed is dying but before he dies he has to complete his mission, a terrorist attack in the D.C. area. They demand Dr. Lawton, if the situation warrants it, to remove Mohammed¿s head and put it in a ¿brain computer interface to produce speech from thoughts.¿ As an incentive to gain the doctor¿s cooperation they have kidnapped his daughter and will kill her if he doesn¿t perform the cutting edge surgery. If he helps these predators, millions of lives will be lost if he doesn¿t, they will kill him, his colleague and his daughter. --- Science fiction becomes science fact as the author states in the afterward that the concepts are sound and only technology is needed to accomplish what the terrorists want. There is plenty of action in this exciting, adrenaline producing thriller yet the characters, even the antagonists, are well developed so that readers get to know them and what drives them. DEAD HEAD is a medical thriller that is on par with the best of Robin Cook. --- Harriet Klausner

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