"Meth Doesn't Live Here" House: side view, a photo by maveric2003 on Flickr.
'Dr Michael Palmer, a physician who began writing tightly plotted thrillers at his kitchen table in 1978 to escape the inner chaos of alcohol and drug addiction, in the process finding a worldwide audience (and sobriety) ... has died in New York. He was 71.'
'Palmer began writing during what he described as the nadir of his life ... Psychiatric help, and the support of fellow physicians in recovery, got him past the worst of it ... Writing suspense thrillers, and working out the internal logic of their intricate plots, became a kind of long-term therapy before it became his profession.'
by Paul Vitello, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/books/michael-palmer-tormented-doctor-who-became-top-author-dies-at-71.html?_r=0