Back on Track

New reviews coming soon! I'll be importing my work from the past two years, but in the meantime,
I'm reclaiming my small place on the web.

Friday, May 28, 2004

Fiction Review

I Like Ice Cream In My Coffee, Part Five
by Diney DeRuy
ISBN-10: 1418412759
review by Heather Froeschl

In Part Five of a series of books, Diney DeRuy has crafted a story that stands alone and effectively makes the reader's hair stand on end. Dr. Nick Demmy is given the chance to get in on a privately funded, family run research institution. The study of the brain and specifically in Demmy's case, phenomenology, is the focus of intensive research done by the Young family. It is highly confidential work and Demmy is truly blessed to be allowed to join the team.

Demmy has only one patient...a woman in a coma, effectively brain dead, who is showing signs of activity in a portion of the brain as yet unexplored. It looks like psychic phenomena is coming into play. This is right up Demmy's alley and he quickly becomes involved in his research. But there is more going on in this facility than Demmy's one patient. Much more. The head of the family, Chief of Staff Young, has a greater plan. He intends to be the Chief of the medical community at large. His research goes so far as to create a living brain and to communicate with the spirit world through it.

In his efforts to become this all-knowing medical giant, Chief Young has raised his sons to follow his rule. They live and breathe their research, each Doctor having an expertise that supports the end goal. There is no life outside of the facility. Once a Doctor becomes involved he remains so, and once he passes through the security systems, there is no returning to normal life.

DeRuy has a chilling imagination. The plot is intriguing and twisted, full of plans crazy enough to be possible in today's medical research world. The fact that this is part five of a series only means that there are four other parts to explore, but certainly this book stands on its own as a good piece of fiction.

No comments:

Post a Comment