Terminal [Paperback]

Robin Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1994

Sean Murphy, a young medical student, secretly investigates the goings on at a Florida medical center where brain cancer patients are treated with a reported one hundred percent success rate. Reprint. K.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Good news: Cook ( Coma ; Blindsight ) lures us into his newest medical thriller easily and sustains our interest until the very end, despite lots of medispeak. Bad news: the characters are one-note players. Boston Irish "townie" Sean Murphy blazes through Harvard and Harvard Medical School, then leaps at the chance to spend part of his internship at a Miami clinic with a 100% remission rate for a particular type of cancer. He also wants to avoid making any commitment to beautiful nurse Janet Reardon, a Boston blueblood. But he's barred from the top-security cancer research lab, and then Janet arrives to work at the clinic, too--she's "aloof and untouchable" but not above chasing Sean, the dashing "Black Irish" with "Mediterranean" features. Dodging a suspicious security chief, an imperious clinic exec and a spying Japanese researcher, Sean and Janet gamely decide to "look into this medulloblastoma business." After the predictable chasing around south Florida, Sean holds the clinic head and his bikini-clad wife hostage in a research lab surrounded by cops while conducting experiments to prove that the clinic is involved in a dastardly plot to fake research results. At one point Sean and Janet are trailed by the security chief, two clinic hirelings, three Japanese would-be kidnappers and a psychopath who kills women suffering from breast cancer. As Sean says, "This is worse than Stephen King." Literary Guild main selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- The Forbes Cancer Center in Miami is experiencing unprecedented cure rates for patients stricken with medulloblastoma. Sean Murphy, a bright, brash, Harvard medical student, takes an elective at the center to learn as much as he can about the procedures and treatments. The icy atmosphere that greets him, coupled with a warning to stay away from the unit in question, fuels Sean's determination to discover why everything is veiled in such secrecy. To carry out his investigation, he enlists the help of his girlfriend, Janet Reardon, a nurse. These self-appointed detectives find themselves chased by a variety of factions and in trouble with the law before unearthing the horrible truth. The unfolding of events is totally implausible, but Cook weaves an action-packed story that is fun to read.
- Grace Baun, Robert E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; First edition (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425140946
• ISBN-13: 978-0425140949
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,367,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word 'medical' to the thriller genre, and over twenty years after the publication of his breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created. Cook has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a over twenty-seven international bestsellers, including Outbreak (1987), Terminal (1993), Contagion (1996), Chromosome 6 (1997) and Foreign Body (2008).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where was Robin Cook's brain when he wrote this one?, March 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Terminal (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read several books by Robin Cook and have thoroughly enjoyed them but Terminal was a total disappointment. The concept behind the plot was good, and had much potential for being a masterpiece but this was shoddy and unbelievable. His two main characters, Sean Murphy and Janet Reardon were unrealistic. No medical student could possibly possess the knowledge he did. Janet is from a snobby Boston family and received a degree from Wellesley in English Literature yet suddenly she's a nurse. Her background is not relevant to the story. In the beginning of the story, Janet's personality was strong and overbearing but as the plot unfolded she became passive, almost submissive. A subplot featured Tom Widdicom, the maniacal serial killer. This had no relevance to the story and that was demonstrated by the abrupt termination halfway through the story. The Japanese company's investment in the Forbes Cancer Clinic was another subplot that never did tie in well with the plot. There were many inconsistencies throughout the book and my final question is, how did Sean get through an airport and board a plane with a gun in his pocket?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If "no stars" were an option..., August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Terminal (Mass Market Paperback)

Being halfway on my struggle through Terminal, I feel an urge to warn all potential buyers and readers: don't waste your time, don't waste your mood, don't endanger your environment...don't even look at this crappy piece of work!

I happen to be in the same line of business as the lead character in Terminal, Sean Murphy; I am aware Sean isn't to be blamed for his inventor's misgivings, however I do sincerely hope I will never share presence in the same galaxy as this individual. He's is crooked, unprofessional, a menace to science, to the medical profession and to his patients. His friends and other supporting actors, are at least as unrealistic. Every female in Sean Murphy's surroundings seems to be either overly pretty and overly inclined to share his bed linnen, or too ugly to lay eyes on. People generally tend to act either as complete imbecils or as geniusses of the Einstein variant. On top of a storyline that fails to even give the slightest impression that Robin Cook has lately been seriously reading up on scientific research technology, you will only find twisted people with less depth of character than Tom and Jerry. To make things even worse, Mr Cook uninvitedly shows us his darker sides by cruel generalisations of various peoples and their cultures. It would not be right to give any examples as the reader would mistakenly think these are to be sought for: the book as a whole is a worthless piece of junk; I didn't find any realistic or convincing passage so far and am affraid of what might follow.

Once again, don't do "Dr." Cook (is this individual still officially recognized as a medical doctor? has he ever been? and if yes, does he apply the same horrors to medical practice as he does to his writing?) the honors of letting his novel get any more attention.

PS: as a non-native english speaker, there might be some spelling mistakes in my writing, for which I hereby beg your pardon.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's time to let this one go...., September 1, 2000

By 

Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terminal (Mass Market Paperback)

A potentially absorbing plot succumbs to mind-numbingly pedestrian prose in "Terminal". The hero, a promising young medical genius named Sean Murphy uncovers signs that all is not right in a prestigious Florida medical research lab that may have just discovered the cure for cancer. There are hints of Murphy's checkered past, but they remain hints less because of mystery than the author's inability to deal with his charachters and have them deal with each other. Before long, it's clear that "Terminal" is a work in progress, and not that far along. There are numerous subplots - Murphy's past being one, while a serial killer is another - that never come together and cause what's left to unravel. The author tosses in a wealth of medical detail that is supposed to ensconce him as the master of the medical thriller, but even that fails to suspend our belief. I doubt a firts year resident, writing in bits and pieces at the end of every 36-hour shift, could do worse than this.