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A review by weaselweader
Intervention by Robin Cook
1.0
Clearly, Robin Cook is fresh out of ideas ...
... and even those ideas he does have these days are executed in a half-baked fashion and poorly executed.
The first half of INTERVENTION (and, for my money, far and away the better half of the book) is an extended diatribe against alternative medicines and therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy. In particular, Robin Cook, as an MD, clearly has some serious issues with chiropractic medicine.
The story starts with some promise as his returning favourite character, Jack Stapleton, New York City medical examiner, conducts a one man epidemiological study of vertebral artery dissections ostensibly caused by, shall we say, overly aggressive chiropractic cervical manipulations. Whether or not Robin Cook's obvious rant against chiropractic medicine is fundamentally sound is not for me to judge but, I will say, that as the foundation for a medical thriller, it had definite bite to it and was coming up in roses at around the halfway point of the book. That is, it was until Stapleton (or was it, in fact, Robin Cook) decided that the public so wanted to believe in the efficacy of alternative therapies that they simply wouldn't accept any efforts to shut them down or bring them under more serious regulation. And, that was all she wrote ... poof, end of plot-line, end of story, dropped like the proverbial hot potato and this poor reader was left with his jaw hanging slackly asking "Wha' happen?".
I guess that one didn't work out so it was onto plot line #2 and we'll see how that goes!
In this part, Robin Cook attempts an excursion deep into science vs religion territory in which he works with an archaeologist friend who claims to have discovered the bones of the Virgin Mary in a crypt underneath the Vatican. The story ends on a ridiculous, completely ambiguous note surrounding the miraculous cure of his son's neuroblastoma but, like the first half of the book, no real plot resolution is ever reached.
So what did these two ideas have to do with one another and how were the two threads united into a single story? Good question indeed! So far as I could see the answer is, "Nothing at all!" to the first question and "They weren't!" to the second question. So what we really have here is two exceptionally poorly executed vast ideas butted together to form (dare I say it?) a half-vast whole which is an utter waste of precious reading time and a sad testament to the thriller writer who can probably lay claim to the foundation of the medical thriller genre. Hang up those spurs, Mr Cook, and retire with dignity. I can't imagine you need the money!
Not recommended.
Paul Weiss
... and even those ideas he does have these days are executed in a half-baked fashion and poorly executed.
The first half of INTERVENTION (and, for my money, far and away the better half of the book) is an extended diatribe against alternative medicines and therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy. In particular, Robin Cook, as an MD, clearly has some serious issues with chiropractic medicine.
The story starts with some promise as his returning favourite character, Jack Stapleton, New York City medical examiner, conducts a one man epidemiological study of vertebral artery dissections ostensibly caused by, shall we say, overly aggressive chiropractic cervical manipulations. Whether or not Robin Cook's obvious rant against chiropractic medicine is fundamentally sound is not for me to judge but, I will say, that as the foundation for a medical thriller, it had definite bite to it and was coming up in roses at around the halfway point of the book. That is, it was until Stapleton (or was it, in fact, Robin Cook) decided that the public so wanted to believe in the efficacy of alternative therapies that they simply wouldn't accept any efforts to shut them down or bring them under more serious regulation. And, that was all she wrote ... poof, end of plot-line, end of story, dropped like the proverbial hot potato and this poor reader was left with his jaw hanging slackly asking "Wha' happen?".
I guess that one didn't work out so it was onto plot line #2 and we'll see how that goes!
In this part, Robin Cook attempts an excursion deep into science vs religion territory in which he works with an archaeologist friend who claims to have discovered the bones of the Virgin Mary in a crypt underneath the Vatican. The story ends on a ridiculous, completely ambiguous note surrounding the miraculous cure of his son's neuroblastoma but, like the first half of the book, no real plot resolution is ever reached.
So what did these two ideas have to do with one another and how were the two threads united into a single story? Good question indeed! So far as I could see the answer is, "Nothing at all!" to the first question and "They weren't!" to the second question. So what we really have here is two exceptionally poorly executed vast ideas butted together to form (dare I say it?) a half-vast whole which is an utter waste of precious reading time and a sad testament to the thriller writer who can probably lay claim to the foundation of the medical thriller genre. Hang up those spurs, Mr Cook, and retire with dignity. I can't imagine you need the money!
Not recommended.
Paul Weiss