Shock: Amazon.ca: Robin Cook: Books

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Book Description

Release Date: Jan 11 2002

Abridged. Four cassettes, 6 hours.

Technology and greed converge in this spine-tingling novel of medicine run amok by the bestselling master of medical suspense.

Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, graduate science students and close friends, spot a campus newspaper ad that promises to solve their financial problems: an exclusive, highly profitable fertility clinic on Boston's North Shore is looking for egg donors. Deborah and Joanna figure they can do a good deed-help infertile couples-and earn money. Although rumors of a fellow student donor's unexplained disappearance surface, the duo is not deterred.

The procedures seem to go smoothly. Deborah is particularly intrigued by the technology involved and by Dr. Spencer Windgate, the charismatic fertility expert responsible for the clinic's success. But second thoughts and curiosity prompt the two women to find out more about the fate of their donated eggs. Stymied by the clinic's veil of secrecy, Deborah and Joanna obtain employment there to continue their probe. Working under aliases, they soon discover the horrifying aims of Dr. Windgate's research, immediately putting their lives-and their sanity-irrevocably at risk.

Posited on up-to-the-minute science, Shock finds Robin Cook at the uncertain crossroads of medical technology and ethics.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Abridged. Four cassettes, 6 hours.

Technology and greed converge in this spine-tingling novel of medicine run amok by the bestselling master of medical suspense.

Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, graduate science students and close friends, spot a campus newspaper ad that promises to solve their financial problems: an exclusive, highly profitable fertility clinic on Boston's North Shore is looking for egg donors. Deborah and Joanna figure they can do a good deed-help infertile couples-and earn money. Although rumors of a fellow student donor's unexplained disappearance surface, the duo is not deterred.

The procedures seem to go smoothly. Deborah is particularly intrigued by the technology involved and by Dr. Spencer Windgate, the charismatic fertility expert responsible for the clinic's success. But second thoughts and curiosity prompt the two women to find out more about the fate of their donated eggs. Stymied by the clinic's veil of secrecy, Deborah and Joanna obtain employment there to continue their probe. Working under aliases, they soon discover the horrifying aims of Dr. Windgate's research, immediately putting their lives-and their sanity-irrevocably at risk.

Posited on up-to-the-minute science, Shock finds Robin Cook at the uncertain crossroads of medical technology and ethics.

Product Details

Audio Cassette
Publisher: Putnam Audio; Abridged edition (Jan 11 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399146342
ISBN-13: 978-0788749230
Product Dimensions: 18 x 10.9 x 2.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 159 g

Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (145 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon

Robin Cook, master of bestselling medical thrillers, answers the "What's the worst thing that could happen?" question in this plot-twisting novel in which villains with no sense of ethics or social responsibility get their greedy hands on the newest cloning technology. It starts when a couple of Harvard graduate students answer the Wingate Clinic's ad for egg donors. The women figure on financing a year in Venice and the down payment on a Boston condo with the extraordinary sum they're promised. But a year later, the heroines feel the emotional need to seek out the children they've made possible for infertile couples. So they disguise themselves and seek jobs at the clinic in order to access the identifying information. The clinic, as it turns out, has plenty of secrets to protect, so it's hard to believe that a pair of computer neophytes could bypass its security. But they do, and the author is an adept enough writer to finesse this detail.

As in past books, Cook is much better at the technical details of medical research than he is at characterization, but he definitely knows how to plot a thriller. This one keeps you turning the pages until the final denouement, though the last chapter ends abruptly, leaving the reader to wonder whether he ran out of steam or is just setting up a sequel in which he'll recycle the villains in a new scheme with a new pair of victims. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Robin Cook's Best Feb 18 2013

By James A. Anderson

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Just finished SHOCK, a medical thriller by Robin Cook, the doctor turned novelist. I've enjoyed soem of his earlier books like COMA and TOXIN, but this one not nearly as good.

A slow start and muddled plot about two Harvard graduate students who try to solve their financial problems by becoming egg donors at an exclusive private infertility clinic in Boston. Later curiosity about their donated eggs prompts them to get employment at the clinic and they discover some horrifying secrets.

These two characters may be Harvard graduates but unfortunately act more like Laverne and Shirley. I don't find them very endearing.The book gets bogged down with too much medical detail in places. I wish the author would just get on with the story.

Consider it worthy of only 3 stars. Just OK.

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2.0 out of 5 stars REPRODUCING REPRODUCTION Oct 28 2001

By BeatleBangs1964 TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, two graduate students answer an ad in their campus newspaper to be egg donors. Egg donors were paid $45,000.00 and the women saw this is as the ideal opportunity to ride the gravy train.

The first stop the train makes is in a former asylum which has been converted into a fertility clinic. The place boasts of a farm, livestock and a very shadowy past and equally shadowy present.

Both women participate as egg donors and, with their newly earned largesse, spend a year in Italy completing their dissertations. When they return to Boston, they are determined to discover the fate their eggs have met.

Genetic experimentation, cross breeding and other reproductive horrors await the women upon their return. The clinic itself is a rather gothic institution, replete with guards and other questionable personnel. The ending was a scene straight out of Dodge City.

Although the story was riveting, it was very disturbing and certainly not up to Dr. Cook's usual high caliber. This was not good FROM HIM because he is capable of so much better than this.

Skip this one. Read "Mutation," "Toxin," "Vector" or "Fatal Cure" instead.

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5.0 out of 5 stars THAT AWAY COOK Oct 14 2001

By "redshoesjet"

Format:Hardcover

AGAIN: ROBIN COOK DOES IT WELL
ALWAYS ON TOP OF THE HEALTH CARE WORLD.
THIS COULD REALLY HAPPEN.
THIS AUTHOR(COOK) IS ALWAYS IN THE FOREFRONT OF MEDICAL/HEALTH CARE MYSTERIES:
LIKE IN "CONTAGION" AND E-COLI
IN THE NEWS NOW
"HARMFUL INTENT" AND BIO-WARFARE AS CURRENT AS TODAY'S NEWS.
ROBIN KEEP ON WRITING,AS A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL IS IS IMPERATIVE TO HAVE AUTHORS' LIKE YOU PUSHING THE STATUS QUO..

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