Medical Thrillers: Charlatans and The Final Diagnosis

    After having written a medical thriller script myself, i decided to watch a few films in the genre, to see if there was something worth copying. There wasn't. I didn't even like Side Effects. So i decided to read a few books. Started with 'Charlatans' by Robin Cook. Hated it. So i decided not to read his famous 'Coma'. Might watch the film later. 

    However, lending Charlatans, i realised something. My earlier deduction about the number of library goers dwindling over the years was wrong. Between 2019 and 22, 6 readers, including myself had lent the book. So it was only Asimov readers that had dwindled. Crap fiction still had readers in libraries. 

    Cook's craft is horrible. His story highly predictable. 

    I next lent Arthur Hailey's 'The Final Diagnosis'. Interesting statistics there. Nobody but me had lent the book since 2008. I was the first person to lend the book since 2008 and 38 people had lent it between 1989 and 2008. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that old writers have fewer readers today. 

    Hailey's craft was far superior than Cook's. That was a relief. But that was it. Terrible story. Nothing to look forward to. Charlatans at least had something to look forward to, the resolution of a mystery, however predictable the resolution might have been.  

Charlatans - statistics

        There was a reason why i had decided against lending this one the first time i went to the library. It was a sentence in the blurb which read 'At Three Counties Hospital one proud, brilliant physician holds the terrible verdict of life and death each time he makes the final diagnosis in a desperate case while passions, professional obsessions, and rapacious desires create a battleground between young doctors and old, and between two beautiful women fighting for the love of the same powerful man.' [Emphasis mine]

    The blurb also had reviews, one of which said, 'Done with skill and absolute fidelity...The best medical novel since Not as a Stranger'. I made a mental note to watch the film based on the book. I am pretty sure the book is going to be similar and my reading of the summary of the book confirmed it. 'Powerful novel about a young doctor who lives for medicine and sacrifices everything for his career. Describes his years at medical school, his practice in a small town and his devoted self-sacrificing wife who works to make their marriage a success.' [Emphasis mine.]

    I am really so done with this male world where beautiful women are always fighting for the love of the same powerful man. It is either that, or some woman is sacrificing for the ambitious male's career. It's infuriating that the trope still finds place in today's films and literature. 

    The only good thing to have come out of reading these books is that i got a taste of what it was like then, the genre, and what it is like, now. Highly male dominated and concentrating on women's breasts. There were descriptions of female bodies in both the books and both really liked describing breasts. Well, even Asimov liked that, to be fair but Asimov was at least brilliant in his stories and had a vision. So i forgave him, because i am partial to good writers.

    I noticed the use of 'negro' and 'negress' in The Final Diagnosis. Googled to learn that the words went out of use only in the late 60s. I think it might have something to do with the Civil Rights Movement. 

    I have decided to go back to reading Asimov. Want to finish of all of him available in the library. Have put in a request to buy more too. Don't know if they will do it.