THE OTHER DR. GILMER :: Benjamin Gilmer

Holy cats. Benjamin Gilmer may be a doctor, but he could have a second career as a thriller or true crime writer, because The Other Dr. Gilmer is a barnburner. A story that, almost too bizarre to be believed on multiple levels, held me rapt from cover to cover. 

It's best to go in knowing as little as possible, because some of the links and coincidences between the two Drs. Gilmer are best when they are come across in the book and smack the reader upside the head. But a "whet your whistle" synopsis goes something like this:

Dr. Benjamin Gilmer was something of a late bloomer, a medical resident who, unlike his twenty-something classmates, was 39, married with a mortgage, one child and another on the way. He had decided on family medicine as his path and found a calling towards a rural practice. He found that at a tiny six-room clinic in Fletcher, North Carolina. After a three-year hiatus, the clinic was being reopened and desperately needed help.

Dr. Benjamin Gilmer learned that his predecessor, Dr. Vince Gilmer, had quite a story. Gilmer the second opens the book with this passage, hooking me instantly:

On June 28, 2004, in rural Appalachia, a man with my name and my profession strangled his father in the passenger seat of his Toyota Tacoma.

The morning after killing his father, Gilmer the first showed up for work as usual and saw his patients like nothing had happened. 

Benjamin Gilmer was in a tough position, coming in after Vince Gilmer (no relation) and trying to win over the patients that, UNIVERSALLY, loved their prior doctor. An upstanding member of the community, beloved by his patients, a man who, according to all reports, went above and beyond to help people and couldn't even bear to kill the mice behind the clinic. No one ever had a glimmer of what was coming.

But how? And why? Feeling the need to answer those questions, Benjamin Gilmer started investigating. Little did he know that deep dive would require all of his (and others) medical acumen, a legal battle, and end in the most unimaginable way possible.

I can't recommend The Other Dr. Gilmer highly enough. On top of a top-notch true crime mystery unfolding before your eyes, the writing of Dr. Gilmer is fabulous, keeping the story moving at a wonderful pace while keeping the complex facts, medical issues and legal process easily comprehended. This is simply one of the most amazing stories I've ever read.