Today I'm delighted to have Julie Chibbaro, the author of Deadly, here on the blog today. Medical mysteries have captivated the world with TV shows from E.R. to the various C.S.I's tv shows. I asked Julie about the popularity of these mysteries and here's what she had to say:
Why are medical mysteries so intriguing?
We all get sick. Much of the time, we don’t know why. I don’t know about anyone else, but as soon as I have symptoms, I start looking on the web for what I might have. That’s the mystery. What’s making us sick? Or what’s making a town sick? Or a virus has spread, and is taking a whole country down. Why?
I also think we want to know how to control these illnesses, both in our own bodies, and when they turn into epidemics. We fear getting so sick we’ll never get better, which makes us morbidly fascinated with how people get sick. How disease spreads. Why we can’t find cures to old diseases like cancer.
As a kid growing up, I loved Robin Cook’s medical mysteries, especially Coma, which they made into a movie. The human body is so unpredictable. The eruption of a rash could mean anything, from an allergy to poison ivy. Right there is a mystery. That’s what makes shows like CSI and House so interesting – we meet the characters with their symptoms, and we have to guess at the right diagnosis. It’s like an Agatha Christie novel – you have the dead (or sick) body, now you have to find out why it happened.
Thank you for stopping by, Julie! I'm all for finding cures and answers to questions, but I don't think my sensitive stomach could handle it all, which is why I safely avoid the CSI shows.
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| Courtesy of Goodreads |
If Prudence Galewski is ever going to get out of Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls, she must demonstrate her refinement and charm by securing a job appropriate for a young lady. But Prudence isn’t like the other girls. She is fascinated by how the human body works and why it fails.
With a stroke of luck, she lands a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of the fever bound to change medical history. Prudence quickly learns that an inquiry of this proportion is not confined to the lab. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, she explores every potential cause of the disease. But there’s no answer in sight—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. Strangely, though, she hasn’t been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in a new scientific discovery?
Prudence is determined to find out. In a time when science is for men, she’ll have to prove to the city, and to herself, that she can help solve one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century.
With a stroke of luck, she lands a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of the fever bound to change medical history. Prudence quickly learns that an inquiry of this proportion is not confined to the lab. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, she explores every potential cause of the disease. But there’s no answer in sight—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. Strangely, though, she hasn’t been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in a new scientific discovery?
Prudence is determined to find out. In a time when science is for men, she’ll have to prove to the city, and to herself, that she can help solve one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century.
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I just finished Deadly and enjoyed it! I find medical mysteries fascinating, though after reading them I'm completely convinced I have whatever illness/virus/disease present in the book. Unlike Julie, I stay away from the internet when I have symptoms, it freaks me out. I tried web MD for a few things and it would usually tell me I either had a spider bite or cancer. Or I had the flu. Or cancer. Whichever:)
I'm one of those people who is really bad at taking care of myself when I get sick. I never go to the doctor for antibiotics, and just stick to OTC stuff. BUT, I'm determined to start taking better care of my health.
You're right, because the human body is so unpredictable it is fascinating to try to discover why that is exactly.