V.R. Peterson
Bloodstream keeps the action graphic and the science straightforward in a tale sure to fascinate. -- People
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Gerritsen leaves the urban hospital setting of her first two successful thrillers (Harvest; Life Support) and steps into Stephen King territory--the troubled Maine town of Tranquility--with mixed results. The former doctor's ability to create credible characters and make medical details accessible and exciting provide the book's strongest moments, as Dr. Claire Elliot--recent widow from Baltimore--tries to make a go of her new life in Tranquility, where she has moved to get her son Noah, 14, away from dangerous influences. Irony of ironies: the country turns out to hold more savage dangers for the teen than the city ever did. Claire's struggles with the boy, her failure so far to win a place for herself in the hearts of prospective patients and a possible romance with the town's police chief are straightforward and moving. Harder to swallow is the book's premise--that savage outbreaks of violence among Tranquility's teenagers occur every 50-odd years, caused by natural or even supernatural factors. It's Claire who makes the connection between recent murders and older attacks, and of course there's the old "enemy of the people" subplot about not scaring off the tourist trade. The fact that Tranquility's teenage problem has a scientific solution lets Dr. Elliot have a final moment of triumph, but you can't help feeling that King would have made the story more powerful--and more fun. Major ad/promo; author tour; Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild super release; Mystery Guild main selection; simultaneous Simon & Schuster audio. (Aug.)
Library Journal
Gerritsen (Harvest, LJ 6/1/96) has hit another home run for the summer reading team. In her latest novel, widowed Dr. Claire Elliot takes her son Noah away from bad companions and potential trouble in Baltimore. She buys a practice in the summer resort of Tranquillity, ME, aiming for a new start. Unfortunately, mother and son land in a town straight out of a Stephen King novel. Every 50 years or so when the rains are heavy and summers hot, the community's teenage boys, come autumn, boil over with uncontrollable rage. Desperately hoping all the violent occurrences have medical causes, Elliot comes up with a variety of theories, all of which involve placing a quarantine on Locust Lake, the town's main source of income. The real cause of the terror is even more ominous and frightening than Elliot ever imagines. Buy multiple copies for the pool, beach, and picnic crowd. They won't be able to put this one down. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/98.]--Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., TX
Library Journal
More medical suspense from the author of the best sellers Harvest and Life Support, this time featuring a doctor set upon by furious townfolk when violence erupts after she removes a hyperactive teenage boy from medication. A Doubleday Book Club, Literary Guild, and Mystery Guild selection.
Kirkus Reviews
Third straight biological unpleasantry by redeployed internist Gerritsen (Support, 1997, etc.), who shuns no commercial device on the quest to suck in ever more readers. While fairly deft at characterization, Gerritsen shows even more smarts in chronicling high-energy ER work (she writes about more bodies than doctors) and ingeniously invents a new brain-altering parasite that has spread through the small resort town of Tranquility, Maine. Dr. Claire Elliot has moved with her adolescent son Noah to Tranquility's Locust Lake after he failed to come to grips with his father's death in Baltimore. As the replacement for the late Dr. Pomeroy, she has her problems being accepted by the locals. But these are nothing beside the plague of violence erupting among the town's young folk. Their mysterious rages bring on many deaths, including the shooting of Noah's biology teacher during class and such bloody events as all-nails-bared catfights among predatory girl students. Slowly, Dr. Elliot comes to believe in her theory of a parasite invading Locust Lake, where the kids swim. Of course, the townies, who have read their Ibsen (or Peter Benchley's Jaws), won't hear of this—the bad news would demean Tranquility's resort attractiveness—and blame the messenger for her insights. Well, is the villain really a pork tapeworm whose eggs were blithely flushed into the lake? Did yet other eggs cause Tranquility's none-too-tranquil murder rampages 50 and 100 years ago? Does the globby green bioluminescence that appears on Locust Lake—and even smears the violent kids—point up the source of the mystery parasite? And what's this green glowing earthworm in Noah's sinus that'snearly killing him? Weirdly terrific stuff with a steel grip. Doc Gerritsen's mastery of the stupefying stupidity inherent in adolescent resistance to almost everything may well give the reader gray hairs. (Literary Guild selection; Mystery Guild main selection; author tour)
