An unstoppable terrorist is facing an opponent he cannot fight – cancer.

New York Times bestseller Michael Palmer brings technological advancements in medicine to the foreground in “The Patient.”

Claude Malloche has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor. An operation is possible, but the location of the tumor could lead to negative side effects.

His new mission is to locate the world’s finest neurosurgeon. His search has led him to Boston and to a high-tech solution.

Jessie Copeland is part of a project that is developing a robotic brain surgeon. The Assisted Robotic Tissue Incision and Extraction device, or ARTIE, can enter the skull and dissolve brain tumors. While still experimental, it is the perfect solution to Malloche’s problem.

CIA agent Alex Bishop has spent five years attempting to capture Malloche. For all his efforts he has never positively proven the existence of Malloche.

His failure has caused the CIA to call him back and remove him from the case. Instead, Bishop turns into a rogue agent determined to capture Malloche.

Palmer brings together all the right pieces to create a thrilling page-turner. The plot seems like something out of an action movie. But then “The Patient” goes wrong.

Palmer knows too much about this subject; he spent 20 years as a physician and is well versed in medicine.

The novel’s downfall comes because Palmer hits the reader with an excess of medical lingo and procedures.

He spends so much time explaining how the system works that the reader loses sight of the plot.

The main storyline in “The Patient” takes too long to develop. The real action does not start until 200 pages into the 433-page book.

Much time is given to the character of Jessie Copeland when in reality she is not a major player.

Palmer focuses on Copeland’s life, while the plotline of Bishop and Malloche seems to be in the background.

What is confusing about this setup is that Bishop and Malloche should be the main focus. The actions in the book revolve around those two characters. Yet not much is learned about their backgrounds.

Palmer cannot be faulted on his knowledge. The development of an ARTIE robot would be a major advancement in treating brain tumors. It seems, though, that Palmer wishes to bestow all his medical knowledge to the reader, which just isn’t realistic.

It is easy to lose track of the main characters in this book. The writing style attempts to add mystery, but only brings confusion.

A real relationship between the characters and the reader is never established.

Palmer has taken the old plot of a terrorist versus a burned-out cop and done nothing new with it.

He slapped a heavy dose of medical technology into the book and called it an original story.