Some stories require a willing suspension of disbelief. Others, like Daniel Palmer’s DELIRIOUS, grab you by the throat and give you no choice but to be immersed. They make you look over your shoulder and under your bed…and it’s glorious.

DELIRIOUS isn’t really the kind of book to which I normally gravitate. I’m more a crime fiction than thriller reader. I read DELIRIOUS for two reasons: first, Daniel Palmer is Michael Palmer’s son, and I believe strongly that good writing is both nature and nurture. Some of my favorite authors are kids of my other favorite authors (James Lee Burke’s daughter Alafair Burke is a great example). Second, Daniel Palmer introduced himself to the world using social media—Twitter and Facebook—smartly and responsibly, and I respect that.

From the opening scene, DELIRIOUS is hard to put down. It is also more than a little scary, but not gory-scary. The story and its characters get into your gut, and Palmer brings them (and their surroundings) to life in a manner that can only be described as elegant (to borrow a favorite dot-com term…which will make more sense once you’ve read the book).

The characters in DELIRIOUS aren’t all human, either. I can’t recall ever having read a book where a consumer electronic was such an intrinsic part of the story.

I get annoyed when cities in which I’ve lived are described in too much or too little detail in books, and Palmer strikes the perfect balance of the two in describing Boston and its environs.

Certain health issues—mental illness especially—are central to the story, too, and the truth is that I trusted completely that the descriptions were sound in part because Daniel’s dad is both a doctor and the master of medical thrillers. Also, these aspects of the story read as though they’d been thoroughly researched, as I have no doubt they were.

I also enjoyed DELIRIOUS because it is a first novel, and it reads as such. The care Palmer put into telling his story is clear, and at the same time, it’s not too “slick.” Don’t want to make anyone cringe, but it reminded me a bit of James Patterson’s and John Grisham’s early work.

DELIRIOUS will make you deliciously uncomfortable, and you’ll love every second.

Blurb: A stunning debut.

Author’s Website: www.danielpalmerbooks.com

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