Robin Cook is the master of the medical thriller. I wish he could have stuck to his regular fare -- unscrupulous doctors getting away with murder. Normally he uses scientific and medical clues to figure out what is going on. In this book, it just happens to be a medical professional that is the main character, and medicine really doesn't enter into it very much. No more so that your regular suspense novel when an autopsy gets performed.
Jack Stapleton is a medical examiner in New York. He has been involved in cases where deaths were caused by infectious diseases. So when a mysterious case comes in he is assigned to it. It appears that man who is a rug dealer has died of anthrax. He dealt in Turkish rugs made from animal hair, so at first it seems to be an isolated case. Animals, particularly in that part of the world, are known to carry infectious diseases.
But Jack must be sure and Jack does some investigating on his own, much to the ire of his bosses, who do not appreciate him angering other important officials in the city. But Jack doesn't give up, particularly when a black woman in Brooklyn dies mysteriously. He knows the woman's brother, who doesn't accept the official explanation. As Jack pokes around, he starts to wonder if the two cases aren't somehow related. Ultimately he uncovers a plot in which radicals intend to release a biological weapon in a government building in New York City. Jack must stop them, but how can he convince the appropriate officials before its too late?
As far as plotting goes, this book is well written. The story moves quickly and there are few diversions from the main story line. There are a couple scenes that seem to have nothing to do with the plot, but later do end up providing at least one red herring, though that could have been done without taking up so much space. That aside, this is an easy and fast read that keeps you turning pages.
If you are a long-time Robin Cook fan though, this may be one book you might skip. Medical thriller it's not. Other than a few scenes where they are doing some laboratory analysis, medical practices have very little to do with this story line. It reads more like a regular suspense novel in which the main character just happens to be a doctor.
It seems no one is able to write an accurate book jacket description any more and this one is no exception. It misleads you into what the book is about. The blurb promises a thriller about bioterrorism. In my mind terrorists are foreign nationals who have a grudge against another country for basically no reason except maybe that country has something they don't have. Not so in this case. The "terrorists" in this story are just some cuckoo radical right-wing racists with a stockpile of guns who want to take over American government. They enlist the help of Yuri, a Russian, now American taxi driver, who used to do biological experiments when he lived in Russia. He agrees to help because he feels he has been screwed over because America would not accept his Russian education as equivalent to get a good job in his field. At least this is a rational reason for being mad, but his reaction to it is irrational.
And because the story is written from the perspective of all three main characters, Jack, Yuri, and the right-wingers there is never any mystery about who is doing what. The suspense builds completely on whether Jack is going to figure it out in time. That is another aspect that I don't like--knowing who the bad guys are right from the start. It takes so much of the punch out of it when the reader knows that much. You're left with only hoping that the hero can hurry up and figure it out, darn it, why are you so blind?
Anyway, its worth reading for its suspense factor, but it is definitely not one of Robin Cook's best efforts. Mutation, Outbreak, and many others were much better. I think he should stick with what he knows. Stick with greedy doctors or administrators--this is something everyone can relate to, since most people feel health care costs too much and is too impersonal. Stick with writing something that makes us angry so that we can cheer for the hero in the end. This one just didn't do it for me.
A Russian emigre, disgruntled at being denied the American dream, has the technological know-how to unleash a deadly bioweapon on the streets of New Y...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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