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Foreign Body (Paperback)

by Robin Cook (Author)

2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback
Publisher: Pan Books (Aug 1 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0330463284
ISBN-13: 978-0330463287
Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 581 g

Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Cook (Critical) stumbles in this formulaic thriller about the timely subject of medical tourism, the trend in which U.S. citizens seek to save costs on expensive surgery through treatment overseas. At the center of the drama is Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, whose grandmother has died in a New Delhi hospital following hip replacement surgery. Suspicious about the circumstances, Hernandez immediately flies to India to investigate. There she not only discovers a number of similar deaths of U.S. citizens but also runs into the one-two punch of a desperate Indian medical industry struggling to block all publicity about the deaths and a huge American HMO that wants nothing more than the widest exposure of the apparent medical missteps in the Third World. Implausible plot twists, unconvincing villains, silly dialogue and a convenient, all-too-happy ending make this one of Cook's rare weak efforts. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A series of unexplained deaths in foreign hospitals sends an idealistic UCLA medical student on a desperate search for answers, in this chilling tale from the master of the medical thriller.

Jennifer Hernandez is a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, just completing an elective in general surgery, whose world is shattered during a break in an otherwise ordinary day. While relaxing in the surgical lounge of L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she half-listens to a piece on medical tourism, where first-world citizens travel to third-world countries for surgery. But when she hears her beloved grandmother's name mentioned, her own heart nearly stops: the CNN reporter says Maria Suarez-Hernandez had died, a day after undergoing a hip replacement in New Delhi's Queen Victoria Hospital.

Maria had raised Jennifer and her brothers from infancy, and their bond was unshakable. Still, the news that Maria had traveled to India was a shock to Jennifer, until she realized that it was the only viable option for the hardworking yet uninsured woman. Devastated, and desperate for answers, Jennifer takes emergency leave from school and heads to India, where relations with local officials go from sympathetic to sour as she presses for more information. With the discovery of other unexplained deaths followed by hasty cremations, Jennifer reaches out to her mentor, New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery, who has her own deep connection to Maria.

Laurie, along with her husband, Dr. Jack Stapleton, rushes to the younger woman's side, discovering a sophisticated medical facility with little margin for error. As the death count grows, so do the questions, leading Laurie and Jennifer to unveil a sinister, multilayered conspiracy of global proportions. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Has Robin Cook jumped the shark?, Mar 1 2009

By	Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Foreign Body (Hardcover)

Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth year medical student at UCLA, suspicious about certain details of the death of her grandmother in a New Delhi hospital, flies to India to investigate and to claim the body. Ultimately, Hernandez discovers that her grandmother has in fact been murdered by a nurse employed by "Nurses International", the subsidiary of an enormous, profit-hungry HMO that is intent on making a burgeoning Indian medical industry appear to be dangerous and incompetent. It seems that the meteoric growth of medical tourism in India has begun to make a substantial and rapidly deepening dent in the profits of the American HMO as it watches many of its patients travel to India for less expensive alternative solutions to their medical woes.

And here I thought Robin Cook was supposed to be writing medical "thrillers". Sadly, "Foreign Body" was anything but!

The list of what was wrong with "Foreign Body" is lengthy indeed - cartoonish villain stereotypes, atrociously stilted dialogue, an unconvincing sappy ending, a complete neglect of the broader political issues that should have been explored in much greater depth and an utter lack of suspense in that the means, the methods, the opportunities and the perpetrators were completely disclosed virtually from the outset of the novel.

The list of what was entertaining is all too short! At least Cook has done a reasonably interesting job of talking about the endlessly fascinating aspects of what one would be likely to encounter in a tourist trip to such an exotic destination as New Delhi. He's also taken us on a faintly amusing side trip through the hormonal nightmares that fertility treatments can wreak on a patient of the female persuasion. But this is certainly damning with faint praise as it only means the difference between an award of two stars versus the one star rating that I was toying with.

Weak gruel indeed! Not recommended and I hope not representative of Cook's efforts in the future.

Paul Weiss

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3.0 out of 5 stars Topical but Repititious and far-fetched story-line, Aug 7 2009

By	C.A. Wilson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foreign Body (Paperback)

Robin Cook's books generally have had a current medical thread throughout. They are well-researched and you learn in addition to enjoying the book -- that is the draw! This book, is no different, in that regard: Medical tourism in India is highly topical. The morning of the day that I bought the book, I heard a CBC radio show about the high numbers of women who are going to India for plastic surgery. So, Cook merits high points for again bringing front-line medical stories to print. However, the repitition in the chapters, the 'way out there' story-line, with professionals who can hop over to India at the drop of a hat........is why I have not finished this book--I will--but I get so tired when I look at it!!
I won't give up on Cook, though. I've enjoyed all of his books, albeit to varying degrees. He got over his head in this one. I am writing a thesis at the moment, and I can see how that can happen. The next one will be better!!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Not His Best, April 30 2009

By	Ian Gordon Malcomson (Smithers, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Foreign Body (Hardcover)

This is definitely one of Cook's less distinguished efforts. The whole story surrounding a homicide investigation involving India's burgeoning medical-tourist trade has no punch whatsoever. It is a lack-lustre tale that drags on ad nauseum because the author is determined to saddle his reader with his version of events; the complete meal deal even when less would do. With the sudden and suspicious deaths of three foreigners in a New Delhi medical centre, the reader should be facing the makings of an international intrigue of gigantic size. Feeding this slowly unfolding drama are the efforts of Jennifer, a 4th-year medical student from UCLA who, with her medical intuition, refuses to accept the word of the Indian medical team that her grandmother died from natural causes while being operated on. Alas, from the time when Jennifer hears about the death of her beloved granny to the time when the culprit is caught, the story gets bogged down in a lot of unnecessary detail. While there is plenty of minutiae concerning the student's travel plans to India to recover her relative's body, there is not nearly enough about how the case was eventually cracked. For some inexplicable reason, which only becomes known near the end, there are certain parties determined to prevent Jennifer from learning the awful truth, and they have the unnerving habit of popping up like gophers when least expected. After all this running around, Cook finally fills his reader in with some critical information that helps pull the rest of the story together. There are two other problems with this novel that prevent Cook from producing his usual cohesive style of writing: one, the physical distance encompassed in this novel is too great to be able to coordinate all the actions of the main characters. Cook should have cut out a lot of the preliminaries and dealt mainly with the actual investigation as it picks up in India; and two, Cook, in the absence of meaningful development, has his main characters talking and acting like pretentious juveniles right out of a "Tom Swift" novel. The medical expertise that Jennifer demonstrates in the story is barely equal to that of an excited child who has just received his or her first doctor's kit as a birthday present. This is not one of Cook's better works, so avoid it at all costs if you don't want to waste your time mired in a lot of palaver.

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