Shock

August 27, 2001
The medical thriller has come a long way since Cook and Michael Crichton invented it: recent practitioners like Tess Gerritson have polished it into a powerful dramatic and social engine. Alas, Cook appears to have gotten off at the wrong station or missed the train entirely, judging by his latest effort, a crudely conceived, ineptly written and—most damning of all—totally unexciting story ripped from old headlines. Things have been going to hell at the Wingate Fertility Clinic, housed in a rambling Victorian mansion near Boston, ever since the gifted Dr. Spencer Wingate decided to take some time off to write a novel and chase women. Not only was he unsuccessful at both activities, but the nasty little replacement he left in charge has been doing some weird stuff—including paying young Harvard women $45,000 for their eggs—and driving down the profits. Spencer returns at the same time as two of these women, Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, who have been spending their payment on Boston real estate and a year in Venice. Judging by the burly security guards on hand who conveniently dispose of a donor who dies on the operating table (and her friend, too) in the first chapter, Deborah and Joanna aren't about to be greeted with open arms. They manage to join the clinic staff under assumed names, hoping to find out what became of the eggs they contributed. Add a farm straight from The Island of Dr. Moreau, where the Wingate staff experiment on animals when they're not busy applying unethical electric shock treatments to human zygotes, and the result is a medical and literary mess with no redeeming features. Advertising on the
Today show and CNN; author tour.

March 1, 2000
Cook once again takes a hot medical topic and turns it into a spine tingler. Two graduate science students go undercover to investigate shady doings at a fertility clinic where they were egg donors. Literary GuildR, Mystery GuildR, and Doubleday Book Club main selections.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2001
Harvard graduate students Joanna Meissner and Deborah Cochrane decide to sell their eggs to a medical clinic to make money while writing their dissertations. The medical procedures go smoothly, and soon Deborah and Joanna are off to Venice for the sake of their theses. But when they return a year and a half later, Joanna desperately wants to know what's happened to her eggs and persuades Deborah to help her. When they fail to get the information they want, they adopt false names and disguises to get jobs at the clinic. Once hired, Joanna tries to hack into the computer system, while Deborah focuses on the unusual research being done at the clinic. They find more than they bargained for when they discover the true nature of that research and the lengths clinic doctors will go to cover it up. Cook's latest isn't up to par with his best. He spends too much time detailing how the women sneak into the clinic; the revelations, when they finally come, aren't particularly shocking or well explained; and the ending is abrupt. Still, the issues of egg selling and secret clinical research are timely enough to generate reader interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)

August 9, 2000
Ah, the wonders of modern medicine, which have given us, among other things, the medical thriller. Here, two graduate science students decide to earn a little extra money by donating their eggs to a fertility clinic. But then they discover that something is amiss. A Literary GuildR, Mystery GuildR, and Doubleday Book Club main selection.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.