Vector [Paperback]

This story lets you peek at both the machinations of the bad-guys--in this case, a disillusioned Russian emigre to the U.S. who has forged a sinister alliance with an extreme right-wing organization called the People's Aryan Army--as they cook up a plan, and the ingredients to unleash anthrax and botulinum threats in New York, while also checking in thoroughly with our hero, Jack Stapleton of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who, through his gruesome work, unknowingly comes across hints that terrorism is fermenting around him. This means that there is not much mystery to the story, of the superb type I recall from Coma. We have, layed out for us, all aspects of what's going on, and most of the suspense derives from the reader knowing of dangers that Jack does not know, or can't seem to figure out fast enough to save hundreds of thousands in the Big Apple, smart and intrepid though he may be. Thankfully, he gets some help and inspiration from various associates, among them Laurie Montgomery, who unsettles him when she introduces her to dashing Paul Sutherland, new love of her life (thus is the romantic triangle subplot spring upon us--although, call it a love trapezoid, as we have another fella named Lou, likeable Doctor-guy, also pining for Laura). But the romantic dithering is a less than satisfying aspect of the novel, as is the book's final stages, where a clever bit of surprise-inclusion comes in tandem with a rather dull final confrontation between heroes and villains, in terms of action and all-out excitement.

Anthrax and botulinum do come across as very nasty weapons when in the hands of terrorists, in this story. Jack Stapleton is a character with scads of moxey--bucking proper process and putting his job in the line to follow up slim clues that a few seemingly random deaths point to a ticking clock of certain doom--and I like his style (especially on a bicycle immersed in New York city traffic while a small army of gun-toting terrorists are pulling up beside him, or when talking cool at the point of a pistol held by a paranoid bioweapons expert in a room loaded with anthrax spores). But everything is so obvious to the reader, that I kept hoping for something to leap out of nowhere and shake up the story. I also felt that the story hinged on a few big coincidences--and besides that, didn't generate the kind of heart-stopping suspense a first-rate medical thriller could do.

But it was a fun read, in an unnerving kind of way, and it was a treat to return to Robin Cook's work after so many years; I had been quite frightened by the film Coma as a youngster and eventually went on to read the book. Vector is too open and obvious in its machinations to compete with that earlier, chilling story, but it has its moments.

The book was written in 1999 and was eerily prophetic to what happened on 9-11 in 2001, so it held my interest. Of course, it is a different tale altogether, but still there is a similarity.

Yuri Davydov, a Russian taxi driver, who emmigrated to the U.S. to find the good life is very disillusioned at the failed promises of what he thinks the "Jewish media" (his paranoid delusion) had promised for those coming to America. He can't find a better job than that of driving a taxi. He had worked in a Bioweapons factory in Russia and figured he deserved better.

He hooks up with a couple of white Aryans of the radical right militia belief who want to destroy the "the Zionist government" and are extremely prejudiced against anyone not white, etc. They concoct a plan that the Aryans will supply Yuri with the materials and he would develop anthrax and a botulinum toxin.

Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, who are both in the pathologist forensics department, are presented with two separate cases that are seemingly unrelated until further investigation. His case is the death of a man from anthrax and her case is about a young man that has been killed in a horrible manner as a result of what looks like his connection to a neo/Nazi gang.

I thought it was a rather interesting story and made me wonder at what causes so many evil thoughts and feelings in people that they would want to do such cruel and inhumane actions. It also makes you wonder about the scientists that develop these weapons and if they ever feel guilty about their satanic projects.

The book makes you think and kept my interest to the end.