Omega

by Patrick Lynch

A hospital on the front lines in South Central Los Angeles begins losing patients to infections impervious to standard antibiotics, and a surgeon's search for the truth about a powerful new antibiotic becomes personal when his daughter falls victim to an infection. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Suspense

368 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 1997

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

A pseudonym used by Philip Sington and Gary Humphreys.

Reviews

[Devi R. Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. It has been so long since I found a story that I couldn't put down and this one made me read at any spare time I had. It's very well written (even if I read the spanish version and I guess on English is just as fascinating!) and the plot moves fast but it's not so rushed at the end, got a few surprises in there. It's a book to read as long as you want or just tiny bits at the time.

[Kenneth Krammager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bogens problemer er meget realistiske og stadig meget tæt på sandheden om de multiresistente bakterier som mere og mere dukker op i større skala her efter bogens udgivelse, 20 år senere.
Super god bog. Alarmerende.

[Kristin Lundgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A second read for me, but the first time is forgotten since it was in the late 90s? Marcus Ford is a brilliant ER doc, working in a hospital in one of the worst sections of LA. He could have a cushy job, but he likes this one, and he is where he is needed. He is a widower, and has a teenage daughter. One day a patient comes in, shot by a rival gang member through the throat, but he is operated on and still lives. Meanwhile, a policeman who was at the scene, is also in the hospital for an injury to his leg. They get them stabilized and all seems to be fine. Marcus goes off to give a presentation, put on by his old friend from med school, now on the board of health, about the overuse of antibiotics, and the growing trend of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. He meets a young woman there, but that breaks up when is is approached by a man, a pioneer in the field, who is now retired, and wants to talk to Marcus about this problem, but do so more privately. They agree to meet that friday at a condo the guy owns . In the meantime, the patients he was working on suddenly start developing drug-resistant pathogens, and he and his team are immediately suspected of causing it by the hospital's germ "Nazi" as they call her - improper techniques, lack of sterile conditions - what is known as nosocomial infections - spread by the hospital itself. Marcus doesn't believe this, and starts asking around. He is contacted by a doctor from a prestigious private hospital who had heard about his talk and wanted to talk to him about a patient of his that seems to have a similar problem. And so follows a thrilling ride, as he tries to uncover the source of the infections, how to stop them, and then it gets personal. A good medical thriller from Lynch.

[Daniel Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting, plausible, maybe a bit dated though, on the potential disaster antibiotic misuse could cause. Mostly excellent plot, maybe too many people and companies to follow. Motivations of the antagonists unclear, strange, at the least, not what I expected. Protagonist well developed, sympathetic. Overall, very good.

[Randy Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the story line here, and it was pretty intriguing. I would like to read this author again, although the medical jargon is pretty technical.

[Ewen Stapley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. We have been so worried about viruses recently it was a change to read a novel about bacteria. Although scary antibiotic resistant ones! A little dated in the technology in the story, having been written 25 years ago - with fax, teletype and car phones! But still enjoyable.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omega is a medical thriller and like most medical thrillers there is a lot of medical jargon. It uses words like sternocleidomastoid and cricothyroidotomy and I have no idea what they mean. But that doesn’t matter. You can always understand the context well enough. Some of the terms and procedures are even explained for you right in the text which I found rather interesting. Marcus Ford turns into a bit of a tragic figure. When things start to go wrong for him they go wrong in a big way. You feel bad for him as he gets blamed for things that are beyond his control and his whole world seems to be falling apart and you want things to turn around for him but you know that they won’t and you wait with anticipation for the next horrible tragedy. You can understand his disbelief, outrage and helplessness as people die and no one will listen to him or let him help and the answers stay just out of his reach. Lynch does a great job of making the reader feel the desperation, fear, and urgency as things start to spiral out of control. It all starts out so small and builds until you can imagine it having disastrous and far reaching consequences. The story pulls you along as you follow Marcus as time and all his options run out. He doesn’t know who to trust, where to turn, what to do, or even what is right. It is suspenseful, engrossing, fast paced and an entertaining read.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

E.faecalis is NOT an anaerobe.
C.perfringens causes gangrene, not botulism.
It's Streptococcus pneumoniae, not Staphlococcus pneumoniae.

Even if you can get past the micro errors, you still have to get through the predictable plot and weak ending.

[Susan Wiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A medical thriller potboiler perfect for the beach, containing all the time-honoured components of the genre. Although it was predictable, I didn't mind, as it's always interesting to see how the author executes this. The male lead character was a bit over-the-top in his impetuous behaviour and naivete.

[ELDEE · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had the hardest time following this book - the first from this author. It was not difficult but was boring.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book sounded so promising. People fall ill with drug-resistant bacteria and Dr. Marcus Ford, an ER doctor who recently spoke at a conference on the very topic, tries to track down a cure. The book didn't live up to the description on the back, because it ends up being more about people being murdered for hiding the secret to this cure than anything else. The infections actually seemed forgotten by the end of the book except for the one that affects Ford's own daughter.
Ford himself gets blamed for the infections when many occur at the hospital where he leads the Trauma program, and Dr. Patou, the hospital's Infection Control director seems like she'll be a thorn in Ford's side throughout the book, as the two don't see eye to eye on these infections, but even Patou barely gets a mention in the late chapters.
It was fine to read and there was a little bit of drama, but certainly not a book worth a second read.

[Ashia Like Aша · Rating 1 out of 5]

Recently I've re-read this book and reminded myself why I gave it a 2-star rating. It's not that it was horrible, but it wasn't necessarily good either. My first issue, which becomes evident within only the first pages of the book, was the dullness within the characters(who make up a great component of a book). They were weak and underdeveloped, and I feel as though they were the exaggerated personifications of known stereotypes (the thugs, the misunderstood teen-daughter, the successful and unsatisfied single parent with emotional damage...well, that last one might just pertain to me :| ). Although the book had an exceptional concept to work with and plenty of opportunity to surround the core idea with beautiful, thrilling scenes, that is not what you receive. It has its few thrilling moments, but these moments are quickly eradicated by boring prose. In the end, it was weak, but I did learn how to misuse nonsensical medical jargon.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in 7th grade. I remember seeing the cover and thinking, "Man... I want to read about a killer virus! I loved Outbreak!" It's an okay read with some thrills here and there, but I remember this good being a very important book for me. It was the first time I put down a book and realized, "Man... that just wasn't very good."

It has little to no payoff, weak characters, and it never engaged me. I'd avoid it.

[Jim McCulloch · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise was interesting and could have turned into a good story. However, I never did bond with the protagonist. In fact, I liked him less and less as the story went on. By the end, I actively disliked him. Characters were flat, undifferentiated, and unlikable. Everything about firearms was factually incorrect and borderline stupid so I wondered about the medical material as well.

[Gerry Durisin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eminently forgettable. Interesting, though that it’s based on the same premise as Plague Tales -- overuse of antibiotics resulting in multi-resistant bacteria -- but this time a sinister plot to withhold treatment enters into the mix.

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

this will scare the living daylights out of you -- particularly if you are ill! predictable ending, but still worth reading.

[Pankaj Verma · Rating 2 out of 5]

a good read.

[Hugo Guillén · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, predecible y enfadoso.