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Summary
Summary
Dr. Robin Cook, the inventor of the medical thriller--and bestselling author of Coma, Abduction, Invasion, Marker, and many other chilling novels--now shows readers a healer's dark side, in the terrifying story of a doctor who plunges into a web of corruption and lies.
Author Notes
Robin (Robert William Arthur) Cook, the master of the medical thriller novel, was born to Edgar Lee Cook, a commercial artist and businessman, and Audrey (Koons) Cook on May 4, 1940, in New York City. Cook spent his childhood in Leonia, New Jersey, and decided to become a doctor after seeing a football injury at his high school. He earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1962, his M.D. from Columbia University in 1966, and completed postgraduate training at Harvard before joining the U.S. Navy. Cook began his first novel, The Year of the Intern, while serving on a submarine, basing it on his experiences as a surgical resident.
In 1979, Cook wed Barbara Ellen Mougin, on whom the character Denise Sanger in Brain is based.
When Year of the Intern did not do particularly well, Cook began an extensive study of other books in the genre to see what made a bestseller. He decided to focus on suspenseful medical mysteries, mixing intricately plotted murder and intrigue with medical technology, as a way to bring controversial ethical and social issues affecting the medical profession to the attention of the general public. His subjects include organ transplants, genetic engineering, experimentation with fetal tissue, cancer research and treatment, and deadly viruses. Cook put this format to work very successfully in his next books, Coma and Sphinx, which not only became bestsellers, but were eventually adapted for film. Three others, Terminal, Mortal Fear, and Virus, and Cook's first science- fiction work, Invasion, have been television movies. In 2014 her title, Cell made The New York Times Best Seller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Guidall's experienced reading brings a pleasant touch of class to Cook's latest thriller. A distinguished and self-confident physician, Craig Bowman is delivered an ego-shattering blow when he is sued for malpractice by the husband of one of his patients, hypochondriac Patience Stanhope, who died while under his care. The trial takes up the bulk of this wordy novel. Bowman's wife asks her brother, medical examiner Dr. Jack Stapleton, to use his expertise to help with her husband's defense. Stapleton agrees, but what should be a routine forensic exercise quickly turns into a dangerous trail of lies, deception and murder. While it takes some time to get to the story's climax, Cook eventually ties up all the loose ends, although the denouement feels more gimmicky than surprising. Guidall exhibits admirable vocal talents as he manages to keep this overwritten novel moving at a satisfying pace, and the ease with which he works his way through the mounds of legal and medical jargon throughout the book is a testament to his skill as a narrator. Fans of Cook's writing should enjoy this dignified presentation. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, May 29). (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
When Boston doctor Craig Bowman is sued for malpractice after the death of a hypochondriacal patient, his fun-filled midlife crisis (girlfriend, sports car, bachelor pad) is interrupted, and he's forced back into grim reality. Craig's unrealistically loyal wife calls in her brother Jack Stapleton, a New York City medical examiner, for support and medical advice. Jack succeeds in exhuming and examining the patient's body, discovering what really happened. Though Crisis is potentially interesting, Cook drastically overwrites; wooden dialog adds to ridiculously drawn-out minutiae (descriptions of houses, Jack figuring out driving directions) to create an unimaginably slow-moving plot (the prolog alone runs 90 minutes). Characters are more like caricatures--a ghoulish funeral director, a classless personal injury lawyer, etc. Craig's implosion from a talented and dedicated "concierge" physician (lavishing medical care on the affluent) to a depressed, lethargic loser is harrowing but hardly riveting--he is genuinely unlikable. George Guidall's narration is great, but this program cannot be recommended.--Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.