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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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| 33607002811233 | Adult Fiction | COOK Robin | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
A lavishly funded, security-conscious nanotechnology institute in the foothills of the Rockies, Nano is ahead of the curve in the competitive world of molecular manufacturing, including the construction of microbivores, tiny nanorobots with the ability to gobble up viruses and bacteria.
But when Pia Grazdani takes a job there, she's shocked by the secretive corporate culture. She's warned by her boss not to investigate the other work being done at the gigantic facility, nor to ask questions about the source of the seemingly endless capital that funds the institute's research. And when Pia encounters a fellow employee on a corporate jogging path suffering the effects of a seizure, she soon realizes she may have literally stumbled upon Nano's human guinea pigs. Is the tech giant on the cusp of one of the biggest medical discoveries of the twenty-first century--a treatment option for millions--or have they already sold out to the highest bidder?
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
This accomplished if familiar medical thriller from bestseller Cook picks up the story of doctor-to-be Pia Grazdani after her horrific experiences in 2011's Death Benefit, which included being abducted and witnessing a colleague, Will McKinley, being shot in the head. Pia decides to defer her New York City residency in favor of taking a position with Nano, a Boulder, Colo., company on the cutting edge of nanotechnology research. Nano's development of "a microbivore-based antibacterial treatment" may help Will recover. To no reader's surprise, Nano's stereotypical evil businessman/scientist head, Zachary Berman, is prepared to jump across experimental ethics lines in pursuit of his own ends. Though Berman's company finds a way to enable "a man to survive a massive, normally lethal medical crisis apparently unharmed," Pia suspects that something more sinister is in the works. The concept of a young medico stumbling on a deadly conspiracy may have been fresh in 1977's Coma, but more than three decades later, there isn't much novelty left. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
The heroine of Death Benefit, Dr. Pia Grazdani, moves from New York City to Denver to work as a researcher for medical nanotechnology firm Nanobots. She is curious about the company's seemingly endless funding and by chance soon finds that Nanobots uses human guinea pigs to test its latest discoveries. Though she's soon in mortal danger, Pia still pursues the mystery to its darkest bottom. This suspense-filled and scientifically detailed thriller is given a splendid reading by George Guidall. His pacing, inflection, diction, and intonation are all a nearly flawless pairing of text and voice. His seemingly effortless performance almost immediately draws in the listener, giving each character a consistent and distinct voice and each narrative passage just the right pace and inflection. Verdict Recommended for all public libraries.-Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community Coll., Lynchburg (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.