Customer Reviews

Marker

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Will Robin Cook ever run out of ideas? His latest, Marker, is typical Cook. Fast paced, lots of twists and false leads, passion, love, and danger. Yup, Cook at his best.

In Marker, mysterious deaths follow routine and not very serious surgeries even though the victims are young and healthy. In fact, enough of these deaths occur to attract the attention of Laurie Montgomery, a New York City medical examiner. Laurie becomes convinced that something is amiss and does her best to enlist the help of Jack Stapleton, who she has a bit of a relationship with.

With the medical mystery as the primary focus, Cook also manages to further develop the love affair between Laurie and Jack who is, if anything, luke warm about a full blown relationship.

Since reading Coma, I have been an avid Cook fan. Lets face it, Cook gives us what we read fiction for...a good yarn, believable characters, intelligent plots, and enough twists to keep a taffy factory going for years.

You'll love this book.

"Marker" sees the return of two medical examiners from a previous Robin Cook novel. Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton's personal relationship is on the rocks because Jack is afraid to commit to marriage with Laurie, whose biological clock is ticking and who wants to start a family. To add to her stress, Laurie discovers that she has a genetic marker that significantly raises the probability she will eventually have breast cancer. As a distraction from their personal problems, Laurie and Jack become involved in a series of autopsies on surgical patients who died of cardiac failure in spite of being young and relatively healthy. Laurie learns of a similar series of deaths in another hospital. She suspects they are all related, but is unable to convince anyone else that these may be homicide cases.

Robin Cook became a pioneer in the medical thriller genre with his book "Coma." Since then he has written many other medical thrillers, most of which follow a plot formula that ensures lots of suspense and a bit of medical education thrown in as a bonus. "Marker" follows the typical Cook formula: an enthusiastic medical professional is a witness to a series of mysterious deaths in a medical environment, suspects foul play, and in the pursuit of the perpetrators, is put in jeopardy him/herself. The medical lesson here is about the DNA markers in our genetic makeup that control not only the functioning of our physiological processes, but also their malfunction. In an afterword, Cook discusses the mapping of the human genome, and then presents the uses, both good and bad, that could arise from knowledge of the genetic markers that predict our future health. This is a fast-paced, suspenseful novel with two likable characters and some romantic interest thrown into the mix. Recommended.

Eileen Rieback

Robin Cook, the reigning king of the medical thriller, returns New York City medical examiners, Laurie Montgomery and her lover, Jack Stapleton (previously seen in his earlier novel "Vector") to centre stage. Montgomery autopsies a mysterious string of unwarranted post-surgical cardiac arrests for which she is unable to formulate any reasonable explanation. Her fertile imagination makes the leap to hypothesizing a demented serial killer stalking the halls of Manhattan General, a well respected tertiary care teaching hospital recently taken over by the HMO giant, AmeriCare. At every turn, despite an obviously rising death toll, Laurie is met with skepticism, institutional political resistance and even direct orders to keep her unsubstantiated and possibly libelous speculations to herself.

Cook's continuing mastery of the ability to create suspense and to convey the complexity and urgency of the daily running of a major metropolitan hospital, the medical examiner's office, an autopsy, a surgery, a "code blue" and emergency room trauma provide more than enough reasons to keep the pages turning smartly into the wee hours.

But there were definitely cracks in the wall that made "Marker" a much less satisfying novel than Cook's earliest works such as "Coma" or "Blindsight".

The identity of the killer, nurse Jasmine "Jazz" Rakoczi, is known almost from the opening pages. It was never a matter of "who", only a question of "why"! While the characters of Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are developed in depth with care and a completely believable and quite moving pathos, Rakoczi is a stereotypical cardboard villain - a cartoon caricature of the nasty bad guy that is at best weak and at worst almost laughable. As a cautionary tale against a possible macabre result of the continuing business takeover of the US medical health care system, "Marker" is left frustratingly open ended.

Robin Cook's fans will still enjoy this one but it's probably not the best place for a potential new reader to take the first dip into the pool.

Paul Weiss

This is yet another high impact medical thriller from the master Robin Cook. As always, he grabs readers right from the start and doesn't let go until you are begging for more. This book was especially interesting to me as I am a Nurse and the afterword he wrote really touched my heart. Cook knows how it is in the medical field and is true to the life in his writing of how stressful and chaotic it is. His characters are well rounded and you really feel you know them. The only complaint I have about the book is I felt the ending was abrupt and he could have expanded his options with the characters a bit more, but all in all, this book is highly recommended, especially to those of you who work in a medical setting. ENJOY!

If you're a fan of medical mysteries, this is a must read. Robin Cook is on top of his game as he brings back the Pathology team of Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery to solve the cases of mysterious deaths of apparently healthy patients (sound familiar, doesn't it). That's not to say Cook resurrects old material - sinister health insurance companies and medical procedures are a big part of this novel, but the author has the talent to breathe new life into old plot lines. The sub plots of Laurie's medical problems and the "bad guy" (one hell of a nasty nurse) are anything but distracting. Not wanting to spoil the ending for anyone, but chapter 24 has got to be one of the most exhilarating pages Cook has ever written. Perfect summer time entertainment.

i read marker. i enjoy robin cooks writing very much. he keeps me turning the pages till i am done. also, he writes in a way to make you think about what your reading. this book is about hmo's and how they affect the medical field. it also makes you WONDER and THINK...is this actually happening. can this actually happen. i would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about suspense and the medical field.

I picked this book up because the cover claimed that this author was "the master of the medical thriller." He may have been the master at one time but this is CLEARLY no longer the case.

I am a board-certified genetic counselor and have seen hundreds of patients for cancer risk counseling and testing. Dr. Cook's portrayal of this process in this book is horribly inaccurate and patronizing to boot. He makes no mention of genetic counseling and his portrayal of the process of counseling and testing is inaccurate as is his description of the lab test (no one uses a microarray or SNPs for BRCA testing). When I find obvious mistakes in a book, I always wonder what other inaccuracies the book contains.

In addition to the inaccuracies, this book is simply too long. The editor could easily have chopped off one hundred pages. I would suggest that they start chopping the seriously ridiculous dialogue! THe characters are trite and self-absorbed and some of the subplotting is absurd (a medical doctor abdominal pain wouldn't think of an ectopic pregnancy?!?).

All in all, I found this book a huge disappointment and won't be buying any other books by this author.

I was really excited when I picked up this book, as I've enjoyed his books in the past, and really like medical thrillers. The sheer heft of it also didn't dissuade me, as you can read just about any length if it keeps your interest (the new Harry Potter at 600+ pages is a good example).

However, I was 4 or 5 chapters into it (the Robin Cook, not Harry Potter), and kept telling myself, "It's got to pick up". When it didn't, I skipped to the end, hoping to entice myself into keep reading. No such luck.

Maybe when I finish the book I'm currently reading & can't put down, I'll try this one again. It's just kinda unfortunate to take up time with one that's not "stay-up-until-all-hours-of-the-night" good when there are so many out there, including many of his previous books, that are.

I was so glad to be able to follow Drs Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery again, after too long a time, as they resume their fight against the various applications of greed to the latest medical discoveries; this time genetic markers. Good way to see who needs to be eliminated (sanctioned) to maximize the bottom line of AmeriCare (the managed health care company, managed of course to increase profits). Dr Cook is back in good writing form and still remembers how to spin out a thriller, as well as to educate us a little more on the medical field. Hope he will turn out another Jack/Laurie sequel and not wait so long to do it.

Dr. Cook's books always strive for more with each book he writes. This one is no exception. Eventhough I am not completely done reading, I feel the events are merging together to the fast pace that always comes towards the end. It is almost always like a roller coaster ride that you are not sure when it will end. I also think the Dr. Cook loves to educate his readers without boring them to death. I have read all of his previous books and hope to continue to read them.