Host

No End To Greed

Doctor-cum author Robin Cook, is an expert writer of medical thrillers, whose bestselling reputation was built on his second book, the shocking Coma (1977).This novel that was also turned into a film and TV mini-series, was about the medical malpractice carried out by a Boston hospital, of deliberating putting patients into a coma, in order to steal and sell their organs. The book was terrifyingly real, well plotted and suspenseful.

Now nearly forty years and thirty-two books later, Cook rehashes the plot for his new novel Host—the only major difference being that the villains are Russian oligarchs and greedy pharmaceutical companies. In the interim his books have covered a wide spectrum of medical evils, and it is perhaps understandable that he ran out of fresh ideas.

Like in the earlier book, the protagonist is a medical student, Lynn Pierce, whose boyfriend, a healthy young lawyer, Carl Vandermeer goes in for a knee surgery and does not wake up. Lynn’s friend and fellow student, Michael Pender tells her that he knows of a relative who suffered in the same way in the  Mason-Dixon University Medical Center, part of Middleton Healthcare conglomerate. Comatose patients are shifted to the Shapiro Institute, a state-of-the-art-facility nearby. It’s an affiliate of Sidereal Pharmaceuticals, a high-tech drug manufacturer owned by a Russian billionaire.

Risking their careers and lives, Lynn and Michael set out to investigate and find a huge scam. Hospitals are meant to cure patients, not abuse their trust and profit from their suffering. But, writes Cook, pharma giants care more about money than healthcare and anything goes in the name of research. They have enough clout to ensure that their machinations go unreported and unchecked.

The story moves at a sluggish pace, there is too much medical jargon and procedural details thrown about (the anesthesiologist’s preparations for the operation, for example, are yawn-inducing), but Cook still manages to warn readers about the unscrupulous side of the medical profession. Honest and earnest though it is, this one would require some speed-reading skills.

Host

By Robin Cook

Published by: Pan Macmillan, India

Pages: 400