Michael Palmer (1942-2013) was a physician and bestselling writer of medical thrillers. One of his best-known books, Extreme Measures (1991), was turned into a movie starring Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Gene Hackman. He is alleged to have decided to try to write a book after reading a medical thriller by a fellow Wesleyan graduate, and thinking "If he could do it, why couldn’t I?" His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
