The Somers Treatment

by Gillian Bradshaw

Life-enhancing medical research or the work of an ambitious neuroscientist? Worthy doctor, Janet Morley, has taken Madhap, a young, deaf Nepalese boy, under her wing. Satisfying her maternal desires as well as her humanitarian beliefs, she's brought him back to England in the hope that she can find the medical aid he needs in order to hear and communicate. Eminent neurosurgeon, David Somers, is only too keen to advance his research in language impairment, and begins the unprecedented treatment. Janet's suspicions are aroused when she meets Michael Shahid, an Ml5 agent employed to ensure that the government's backing of the research is deserved. When Janet's house is burgled and David Somers and his assistant found murdered, Michael suspects that industrial espionage might be to blame, but the real truth is far more worrying...

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Born in Arlington, Virgina, Gillian Bradshaw grew up in Washington, Santiago, Chile and Michigan. She is a Classics graduate from Newnham College, Cambridge, and published her first novel, Hawk of May, just before her final term. A highly acclaimed historical novelist, Gillian Bradshaw has won the Hopwood Award for Fiction, among other prizes. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their four children.

Reviews

[Evan Þ. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This's a modern lit-fic story with a few sci-fi elements. A woman returns from a foreign aid trip with a deaf teenager, to give him treatment to cure his deafness. And then he must learn to speak, and she must deal with her emotions about the treatment - as well as a new romance. Oh, and there's also some industrial espionage, but that's kept well in the background.

This isn't my cup of tea. I wouldn't have read it were it not for the author; I'm surprised she went here, and I hope it doesn't herald a similar genre shift for her later books. But if you're hoping for exciting sci-fi industrial espionage like I was when first starting this - or even exciting action in general - don't go here.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good mystery: interesting ideas on language and the brain, and also ethical dilemmas, with a little too much feel-good romance thrown in.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beyond amazing. I enjoyed it so much, I requested the other books by this author at my local library!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and easy read. Medical research fiction.