An Opinion on Michael Palmer's Second Opinion

After reading Look Me in The Eye a few weeks ago, I became interested in Asperger’s Syndrome. More spisificly, I became interested in fictional depictions of people with Asperger’s. I wondered how they matched up to Robison’s excellent description of himself.
That is why I read the Second Opinion, by Michael Palmer. The book jacket wasn’t very promising. Doctor with Asperger’s. Can you say House rip-off? Because I sure can.
The book was marginally better than I thought it would be.
Palmer is a slightly above average writer, whose strength isn’t the development of believable characters, but is instead the development of a plot that moves along in such a way as to keep my interest moderately sustained, enough to get me to finish the book, just to see how it turned out.
Thea Sperelakis, an Asperger, who is a moderately famous medical doctor is summoned back to Boston when her father is the victim of a hit and run accident. Only, and this is shocking, Thea begins to discover that her father’s accidental meeting with a car might not be an accident at all, and she egins to stumble, and this is also shocking, onto a wider conspiracy at the hospital in which her father worked.
With her father able to blink one eye, allowing Thea to communicate with him in short, criptic conversations, Thhea must figure out what’s going on in time to bring the victims of her father’s maiming to justice.
Spoiler, she does.
The book moves along at a good steady clip, rarely pausing for introspection, or for anything else. The conspiracy is sort of interesting. The books resolution is just satisfying enough to not leave me feeling too cheated, although it is slightly implausible. It’s either too obvious, or not obvious enough, who ends up being behind the conspiracy, depending on which way you look at it.
The Asperger’s is photogenic, as well. No weird rant’s on a mate with paws, unlike in Robison’s autobiography. It’s more of a quirky Temperance Brenin type of autism, for good or ill.
In short, if you like thriller’s this isn’t bad, and if you don’t like thrillers, and you’re stuck with this, it’ll get you through several hours.