Helpful Score: 10
This was yet another entertaining and suspenseful thriller by Robin Cook. I enjoyed the book and finished it in just a few days, which is unusual for me, considering my busy schedule. This novel is a bit more sci-fi than some of Cook's other works, but if you are into medical thrillers, you will like it. The only downsides are that I found the plot a bit predictable, and the ending left a lot of issues unresolved, but I still recommend this book.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a fast-paced read that makes one think about how drugs are pushed on physicians (in real life) and makes one wonder just what goes on behind the scenes. Compelling read - worth the short time it takes to finish.
Helpful Score: 1
Great book! As usual, a real page turner that doesn't get resolved until the final page.
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent book. One of Cook's better novels.
Helpful Score: 1
As usual, another page-turner from Robin Cook. Though it at times seems rather outdated (published in the early 1980s) it's still a great read.
Helpful Score: 1
A mind-boggling page turner.
Helpful Score: 1
Pretty good. A little weird, but where's the fun in normal?
Helpful Score: 1
this book was fantastic...it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time
This one got a little far fetched even for Robin Cook! A little over the edge on the whole conspiracy theme and how far they would go.
A medical student drops out of school on the eve of becoming a doctor when he finds out his wife is pregnant. Against the advice of his teachers he takes a job with a phamaceutical company. Now he is fighting for the life of his unborn child and to save his family.
Adam Schonberg, the hero of Cook's latest (and silliest) medico-thriller, is a N.Y. medical student, supported by wife Jennifer's dancing career--until Jennifer gets accidentally pregnant. What to do? Well, abortion is repugnant to both husband and wife; so Adam decides (not very plausibly) that he has to quit reed school and get a job--with Arolen Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey. Soon, however ...
More, trainee Adam is becoming more and more suspicious about the big, slick Arolen company: its salesmen have computerized personal data on all the potential doctor-customers in the N.Y. area; Arolen treats its M.D. customers to lavish ""educational"" cruises; the company is doing research on psychotropic drugs and fetology. And, meanwhile, pregnant wife Jennifer has become a patient at the ""weird"" Julian Clinic--where everyone speaks in a creepy ""flat voice,"" where one of the docs has just committed suicide, and where Jennifer's obstetrician (recently returned from a cruise!) has suddenly started prescribing an iffy anti-morning-sickness drug. . . manufactured by Arolen!! Could all these ""strange coincidences"" be connected? Could the Julian Clinic have an ulterior motive for mis-diagnosing Jennifer's unborn fetus (via amniocentesis) as severely abnormal? Could Arolen and the Julian be linked in a fiendish conspiracy to manipulate the medical profession and--via unnecessary abortions--generate a steady supply of fetal tissue for experimentation?? Of course, of course. So Adam sets out to get the goods on the Arolen conspiracy: he joins one of those doctor-cruises, witnessing the drugs-and-electrodes brainwashing of gullible docs; he uses a court order to rescue Jennifer from abortion. And, after sneaking into the Puerto Rico hospital where doctor-victims are getting assembly-line lobotomies, Adam brings vivid evidence of the Arolen horror to the top doc at the FDA. . . who just happens to be his estranged father.
More, trainee Adam is becoming more and more suspicious about the big, slick Arolen company: its salesmen have computerized personal data on all the potential doctor-customers in the N.Y. area; Arolen treats its M.D. customers to lavish ""educational"" cruises; the company is doing research on psychotropic drugs and fetology. And, meanwhile, pregnant wife Jennifer has become a patient at the ""weird"" Julian Clinic--where everyone speaks in a creepy ""flat voice,"" where one of the docs has just committed suicide, and where Jennifer's obstetrician (recently returned from a cruise!) has suddenly started prescribing an iffy anti-morning-sickness drug. . . manufactured by Arolen!! Could all these ""strange coincidences"" be connected? Could the Julian Clinic have an ulterior motive for mis-diagnosing Jennifer's unborn fetus (via amniocentesis) as severely abnormal? Could Arolen and the Julian be linked in a fiendish conspiracy to manipulate the medical profession and--via unnecessary abortions--generate a steady supply of fetal tissue for experimentation?? Of course, of course. So Adam sets out to get the goods on the Arolen conspiracy: he joins one of those doctor-cruises, witnessing the drugs-and-electrodes brainwashing of gullible docs; he uses a court order to rescue Jennifer from abortion. And, after sneaking into the Puerto Rico hospital where doctor-victims are getting assembly-line lobotomies, Adam brings vivid evidence of the Arolen horror to the top doc at the FDA. . . who just happens to be his estranged father.
As usual, Cook has come up with an intriguing idea for a medical thriller, but can't get off his soapbox long enough to tell it.
This time the bogeyman is Big Pharma, directing an unlikely plot to create Stepford Docs willing to prescribe only their company's medications. There's also a subplot about their acquiring fetal tissue for experimentation via performing unnecessary abortions, which brings in the young hero whose unexpectedly pregnant wife is in jeopardy.
This time the bogeyman is Big Pharma, directing an unlikely plot to create Stepford Docs willing to prescribe only their company's medications. There's also a subplot about their acquiring fetal tissue for experimentation via performing unnecessary abortions, which brings in the young hero whose unexpectedly pregnant wife is in jeopardy.
Love this chilling mystery thriller! Again -- Robin Cook does not disappoint! Not sure how he comes up with such compelling and complex plots, but I think it would be scary to live inside his head.
Love this book
A gigantic drug firm has offered an aspiring young doctor a lucrative job that will help support his pregnant wife. It could make their dreams come true-or their nightmares...
Future doctor Adam Schonberg loved his wife. That was why he took a job with the giant drug firm, Arolen, for the money he needed for their coming baby. His wife, Jennifer, felt she would get the best care at the Julian Clinic as her pregnancy progressed. It seemed a happy coincidence that the Julian Clinic was owned by Arolen..until Adam Schonberg slowly began to suspect the terrifying truth about this connection...and about the hideous evil perpetrated on the wife he loved by the doctor she helplessly trusted...
GOOD MEDICAL THRILLER
