When I picked up Stigma, I did not realize until after I finished the book that it was Philip Hawley Jr's first novel! I still cannot believe Stigma is his first published book. I could not put the book down. From beginning to end Stigma is thrilling, funny, action packed and exciting. I am hoping for more books by Hawley Jr.

So, Navy SEAL turned peds doc, with dorky dad, and two ex girlfriends starts the book out innocent enough for a medical thriller. There's lots of shouting medical jargon and other stiff dialogue. Two crazy vaccines (that in the real world would throw up the kinds of ethics flags that would ever keep them from being distributed) start turning the world upside down, starting in a backwater village in Guatemala, where everyone has endemic Cystic Fibrosis. Got that?

When one ex girlfriend is murdered and another goes missing, ex Navy SEAL turned peds doc, starts doing stupid stuff like beating up cops and trying to do things on his own. He winds up with Shortround from Indiana Jones as a helper down in Guatemala, then finds out some jerk (from Project Lawnchair) with a nasty vendetta against him, has missing ex.

On the home front, dork dad continues to bumble through his research and Buddy Texas, a pathologist with a tarantula named for his wife, are trying to help out Navy SEAL turned peds doc. Then, some other guy from Project Lawnchair, who only refers to himself in the third person, swoops in and tries to help out.

Nuts, eh?

Oh, and don't forget the evil drug company that's in on this too, and an ending complete with SWAT teams and helicopters!

What a silly, silly, silly book. It gets two stars because it's so over the top, it's funny.

I thought STIGMA was just okay. It's actually pretty good for a first novel. It has a decent plot and very polished prose.

The major downside of this book, at least for me, was the lack of character depth. For the most part, the protagonists of STIGMA lack life and personality. I also felt that much of the dialogue in this novel was bland and only served to move the story forward. To me, a thriller doesn't "thrill" unless you genuinely care about the characters. In this book, none of the characters really resonated with me.

I also felt the plot was structured in a manner that wasn't very compelling. The first two hundred pages of this novel are a lengthy explanatory setup for the action scenes in the second half. I felt Hawley gave in to the temptation of telling the reader too much, too soon. As a result, this novel unfolded in a manner that I found quite predictable.

Hawley's a good enough writer to keep an eye on, but I think this particular novel is average at best. If you like Hawley's work, you might want to try the work of Daniel Kalla, who writes in a similar style. Personally, I prefer the work of Joshua Spanolgle and Tess Gerritsen, who write medical thrillers with better characterization.

What a great debut novel !
I couldn't'stop reading this one. This fast paced story keeps you sitting in your chair and jumping by the sound of a mosquito.
Keep breathing, this story's more then breathtaking and frightening at the same time.

Hawley, definitely a name one should keep in mind.

Most of this novel seemed like a setup for some big plot point, but it never really materializes. The hero, who happens to be a Navy SEAL, turned super elite killing machine turned brilliant doctor stumbles onto a huge conspiracy in which just about ever facet of his life, past, present and future collide. (Note to all thriller writers: not every hero has to be a Navy SEAL). His super elite military past doesn't really pan out to be an important point. The ultimate evil plot behind all the strange happenings turns out to be pretty lame. It's a decent, mindless piece of thriller fiction, but that's about it.