Book Review: A Slow Burning

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Slow Burning     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Stanley Pottinger
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Medical   Thriller
Dutton, Feb 2000, $24.95, 464 pp.

His superiors pressure New York police detective Nat Hennessy to abuse the love and trust of his fiancee Camilla Dissonette. The plan is to destroy Dr. Cush Walker, a neurosurgeon who is a finalist for a Nobel Prize. Cush is Camilla's former boy friend.

Cush has invented a brain-scanning device that detects when an individual has a proclivity for racial bias. The BIAS test frightens many police officers, as they fear they will fail when their feelings emerge. Cush has also pioneered work in restoring damaged brains. That means little to the NYPD brass who feel the brilliant doctor is going to obliterate their department and more important their jobs.

A SLOW BURNING is a brilliant medical thriller in which the action never slows down while providing a message on racial discord. The story line is complex as eccentric characters push forward their own agendas. Stanley Pottinger shows he is one of the best by his ability to incorporate ethical and moral issues within a nonstop thriller. Few writers can successfully unite the cerebral with the brawn as he has in this novel and his previous work THE FORUTH PROCEDURE.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner