Warren doctor debuts in book

He has long been a
consultant for the authors.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Locals have found Trumbull County’s forensic pathologist, Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, to be an interesting character — his white hair, horn-rimmed glasses and sharp intellect on display from the witness stand in numerous trials in the past decade.

Especially evident is his ability to give complicated medical information to lay people in a way that produces confidence that the doctor has determined all there is to know about the cause of someone’s death.

He patiently explains, like a disciplined school teacher, medical terms and the implications of what he has found. Sometimes he puts his glasses on the top of his head as he talks to the jury, giving the distinct impression that the only thing that matters to him is the truth revealed by the body he has inspected.

Apparently novelist James Patterson finds the doctor interesting as well.

Patterson, who has written dozens of best-selling mystery novels since the 1970s, learned of Dr. Germaniuk second-hand, from a longtime homicide detective in Washington, D.C., who knew Dr. Germaniuk when he was a forensic pathologist there.

Though Patterson and his co-author, Maxine Paetro, primarily value Dr. Germaniuk for his knowledge of forensic pathology, they have also recently used him as a character in their writing.

From reality to fiction

In the Patterson book “The Sixth Target,” released last month, a character named Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk appears early in the story, described as a “fortysomething white man, five eight or so with salt-and-pepper hair and black horn-rimmed glasses” who is deputy chief forensic pathologist in San Francisco.

The story describes Dr. Germaniuk performing an autopsy on a victim of a ferry boat killing spree. The lead character of the book is a San Francisco homicide detective named Lindsay Boxer.

She walks into the doctor’s lab room looking for information to help her solve the crime. She knows she’s pressing her luck by nosing around in the doctor’s work and gets an icy reception.

“The ferry victims are going to be an all-day sucker, and I’m just getting started. If you have any questions, ask me now. Otherwise, just leave your cell number on my desk. I’ll call you when I’m done,” the doctor says.

The detective backs off, knowing that the doctor is just doing his job. Later, the doctor softens and helps the detective learn some preliminary facts about the death.

“I knew Germaniuk to be a perfectionist, fast with a joke, and great on the witness stand,” Patterson writes.

Asked whether he thought the description of the character is accurate, Dr. Germaniuk said: “A lot of people who have read it say he pegs me to a T.”

Book to TV

The growing number of fans of the Women’s Murder Club are in for a different sort of treat this fall on ABC, when the network debuts a television show at 9 p.m. Fridays featuring the crime-solving foursome of Lindsay Boxer and her three female friends: a district attorney, newspaper reporter and the Germaniuk character’s boss, the chief medical examiner.

Two other Patterson books — “Along Came a Spider” and “Kiss the Girls” — have been turned into the movies starring Morgan Freeman in recent years as well.

Dr. Germaniuk began his relationship with Patterson and Paetro in 2003 and has assisted them with five novels in the Women’s Murder Club series since then — books 4, 5, and 6, which have been published, and books 7 and 8, which come out later. The series began five years ago.

The doctor’s role is to read manuscripts to advise the writers on whether the writing is based on sound scientific principles. At crucial points in the writing and editing process, it’s not uncommon for Dr. Germaniuk to get two to three calls a day asking for assistance, Dr. Germaniuk said.

Sound scientific foundation

Dr. Germaniuk compares Patterson to great writers such as biochemistry professor Isaac Asimov and the Harvard Medical School-trained Michael Crichton in their emphasis on getting scientific facts right in their writing.

“That’s the point is to give it [the books] the same realistic perspective as real life,” he said. “Once you establish a strong [scientific] foundation, you can build and embellish some of the stuff,” he said, pointing to Crichton’s use of science and embellishment in his novel “Jurassic Park.”

Debbie Santangelo of McDonald, an employee at the Trumbull County Auditor’s office, said she has been a James Patterson fan for many years and only recently realized that his books had a connection to Dr. Germaniuk.

When she started seeing his name appear in the credits and his character in the latest book, she contacted him. He agreed to sign her copies of the Women’s Murder Club books.

“He seems like a very interesting person,” Santangelo said of Dr. Germaniuk. “What I’ve seen of him on television or whatever, I like him. He seems to know what he’s talking about.”

runyan@vindy.com