Customer Reviews

Cure

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I have long been a fan of Robin Cook since he wrote Coma and have read all his books, own them and some I have re-read. This one, however, was a major disappointment. His writing has changed dramatically with this book. He spends so much time on the Japanese mob and explaining all the intricacies of this organization, that he wastes time that could have been better spent on telling the kind of story he is well known for.

Another thing I absolutely hated about this book and that was the inordinate amount of harsh profanity that Cook used in this book. He has never, ever used foul language; hardly ever more than a 'd' or 'h', but this time he uses the 'f' word numerous, numerous times, even 's' and 'gd' on numerous occasions. Now, I'm not a prude, but I was not brought up hearing language of that sort, none at all, and I believe you can tell a good story without profanity and vulgar language. It adds nothing to the story and turns me off completely. Robin Cook has always spun a great medical thriller without using these words and I wish that this would be the last time he uses language like this. It DID NOT help the story. There are many authors out there who consistently write good books without resorting to foul language to try to liven up their story.

It took me till I was over halfway through the book to really get into it, not like I usually do from the first chapter in a Robin Cook book. It was sluggish and boring. Things started picking up nearly at the end but the action was short lived, nothing like what readers always get with a Robin Cook thriller. I persevered because I had paid good money for this book, but had I not bought it as I have all his other books, I would have given up long before halfway through. The next Robin Cook book that comes out, this reader will borrow it from the library. I won't pay good money to be bored and have my ears assaulted with vulgar language.

I have been a fan of Robin Cook since COMA and I believe I read everything he writes and will most likely continue to do so. That being said, this book was not great. Too much explanation of the Japanese mob and too technical at times in explaining stem cells. Certainly timely and thought provoking though. Good basic story line. Robbery,espionage, kidnapping and murder are the things readers buy thrillers for.These elements are there. Some of the characters are a little too stereotyped for me. My biggest issue is the final chapter where the preaching takes place. I know there are issues with health care coverage and medical research and politics but I do not want to read about them in my novels. Dr. Cook could write a non-fiction treatise if he wishes to express his views on important issues. Leave the thrills in the thrillers and the commentaries out!

In "Cure" by Robin Cook, Ben Corey is an American businessman and scientist, who plans to make himself a billionaire by investing in IPS cells--a new sort of stem cells--and buying their patents from the man who made their discovery while working as a researcher in a Japanese university--Satoshi Machita. Except things are not that simple. Satoshi lives in Japan, and he has been fired by the university where his lab books are stored. Corey teams up with the Japanese mafia known as the Yamaguchi, promising them a stake in his U.S. IPS start-up in exchange for breaking into the university, stealing Satoshi's lab books that detail his discovery, and smuggling Satoshi and his family to America where Satoshi will sign a contract handing over his patent to Corey's company.

Everything works out until Yamaguchi's rival mafia organization--who have invested in the original Japanese IPS start-up--find out that the patent is being transferred right under their noses unless they can kill Satoshi and get his lab books back. The stakes are so high, that even the Japanese government is willing to cooperate with them--which spells trouble for both Satoshi, who is now residing in Fort Lee, New Jersey, as well as Ben Corey's company.

This is the second Robin Cook book I've read, and continues his tradition of featuring New York City Office of the County Medical Examiner spouses Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, whose lives are impacted when they become involved in the investigation after an unidentified Asian man turns up dead--seemingly of natural causes--until Laurie becomes increasingly suspicious.

It was a long read, though the Japanese mafia premise was interesting. The pace picks up towards the end, after Cook adds an interesting plot twist. The suspense is not unpredictable, but does better itself toward the second half of the book. Overall, a light summer read.

so far i just can't get into it - I have read every Cook book and was disappointed with his last one but thought i would give him one last shot - waste of money and time - don't think i will finish it! I will go back to the beginning when the magic was still there and start reading his original works over again...

Okay, I love Robin Cook, so I don't pay much attention to the reviews and just go ahead a get the book. Big mistake. First I had a problem with all the Japanese names being so similar. Then keeping their roles straight. It was like being at a baseball game and needing the scorecard to keep track of the opposing team. I can't say how many times I had to go back to the list of characters at the beginning of the book. The plot seemed to be more about the mob wars than anything to do with something medical. If you, like me, just have to read the latest Robin Cook book, borrow it from someone like me who was stupid enough to buy it. Don't waste your money.

Medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are euphoric with the birth of their first offspring. Following medical leave, Laurie returns to work and her boss assigns to her a routine inquiry in which the preliminary indication is death by natural causes.

However, something feels off kilter to Laurie and she is positive it is not caused by postpartum blues. She digs a bit deeper and soon realizes the victim has been poisoned. Her investigation leads to the Mafia and Japanese gangsters competing with money laundering investments in a crooked stem-cell research firm. When the felons kidnap her son Laurie goes lioness berserker in pursuit.

Cure in an exciting medical thriller due to the diligence of the lead protagonist whose investigation leads to a convergence of the biotechnical and mob industries aimed at her and her loved ones. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Laurie begins her autopsy and never slows down. Although resolutions are incredibly too obvious, easy and abrupt, fans will enjoy the latest Montgomery-Stapleton tale (see Foreign Body) as the enemy goes after them by targeting their Achilles' Heel.

Harriet Klausner

It's the story of Dr. Laurie Stapleton's return to the New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan after an eighteen month maternity leave due to the birth of her son, JJ. She's eager to prove that she still "has it" after such a prolonged absence, and her very first case is a challenging one. It's an unidentified Asian male who apparently died of natural causes on a subway platform. But Laurie suspects otherwise...

There follows a rather complex tale involving the Japanese Yakuza (gangsters) operating both in Japan and in NYC. It also involves home grown mobsters in New York and New Jersey who work with the Yakuza. There's a corrupt doctor/entrepreneur who wants to cash in on a patent for stem cell production that could be worth billions.

Author Robin Cook does throw some curve balls at the reader. There are too many hard-to-remember names and terms. Too much confusing jargon about biotech research. Cook must have been aware of these flaws, for he has a useful glossary at the beginning of the book, but it would have been better just to simplify a bit.

But most of those curve balls are thrown in the first hundred pages (396 total) or so. There were two or three mysteries going simultaneously through most of the book, keeping me interested. As usual, Cook demonstrated his mastery of wordsmithing. And, the conclusion is most exciting, easily overshadowing the flaws noted above.

Cure works best, is most interesting, as a how-to book. It explains (and often rere-explains) the science behind cell research and police procedure, explains the financial background of medical megabusiness. All of that explanation serves as the basis of the book, which then unfortunately attempts to enslave its characters to carry the weight of that exposition.


The charactersCure all share a similar voice with different accents. There are no really different people here. They rarely behave in a way that is consistent with reality, and never in a way that would engage one's empathy, humor or ire. A state medical examiner will decide to withhold evidence of a robbery from the police in order to ostensibly announce it more dramatically later in the day. A death threat is passed off as a joke without discussion. Dr. Cook consistently manipulates the thinnest of reasons in a vain attempt to create a narrative tension that is finally just plain annoying.

Whatever you do, don't make this your first Robin Cook book. You'll never read another and rob yourself of some fine novels. This one just ain't it.

I have read every one of his books. I am disappointed that they keep getting worse with each new book he puts out. This book was awful. I felt like I needed a crash course in Japanese culture just to read the book. The glossary in the front was not helpful. Why should a reader have to keep flipping back to a glossary just to read a book?

The first six chapters of Robin Cook's latest offering CURE were a real chore to get through but I thought I would stick with it and finish the book because I had enjoyed some of the author's earlier works. That decision turned out to be a glaring error on my part. Between the unpronounceable names of the Japanese characters, the interaction between the two competing Japanese mobs plus the involvement of the American mafia who, it appears, all launder their ill-gotten money by investing in up and coming bio-research companies, plus the explanation of the "manufactured" stem cell R&D (unfathomable to someone without a medical degree) and the greedy bio-tech guru's who hope to make billions by acquiring medical research patents no matter what the cost, this reader ended up with an unsatisfying read, not to mention a colossal headache.

As for the individual characters, there are just too many and none are very well developed. The medical examiner spouses, Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are fairly interesting although she is just a little too anal-retentive for my personal taste. The plot itself is convoluted and offers very little in the way of suspense OR surprises. After dragging the story on and on with detail after detail and chapter after chapter about the Japanese mafia the ending itself was a rushed, slap dash affair concluded in a few pages. All I can say is that it's a good thing that Mr. Cook has an "established name" because if this book were offered to a publisher by an "unknown writer", it would either be languishing on someone's desk or it would have already received a "thanks but no thanks" letter.