Body, Mind & Health - Fiction, Thrillers

Contagion

Name: Contagion
Author: Robin Cook
ISBN: 9782253170822

by Robin Cook

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Overview

After he loses first his midwestern ophthalmology practice to a for-profit medical giant and then his family to a commuter airline tragedy, Dr. John Stapleton's life is transformed to ashes. Feeling less the golden boy than a jaded cynic, Stapleton retrains in forensic pathology and relocates to find an uneasy niche for himself in a city that suits his changed perspective: the cold, indifferent, concrete maze of New York. Stapleton thinks he is past pain and past caring, but as a series of virulent and extremely lethal illnesses - capped by a particularly deadly outbreak of a rare strain of influenzastrikes the young, the old, and the innocent, his suspicions are aroused. When the apparent epicenters of these outbreaks are revealed to be hospitals and clinics controlled by the same for-profit giant that cannibalized his old ophthalmology practice, Stapleton fears he has stumbled upon a diabolic conspiracy of catastrophic proportions: Could the for-profit giant be engaged in the systematic elimination of its more costly subscribers? Getting at the truth leads to Stapleton's unlikely pairing - both professionally and personally - with Terese Hagen, an art director at a hot Madison Avenue advertising firm. Together they discover that the real explanation behind the killer contagious is even more Machiavellian than could be imagined.

From the undisputed master of the medical thriller comes a terrifying cautionary tale for the millennium. After losing his ophthalmology practice to a for-profit medical giant, Dr. John Stapleton retrains in forensic pathology. When a series of virulent and extremely lethal illnesses appears on the scene, Stapleton traces the cause of the outbreak to the same corporation that cannibalized his practice. 434 pp.

About the Author, Robin Cook

Dr. Robin Cook is the author of thirty-one previous books and is credited with popularizing the medical thriller with his wildly successful first novel, Coma. He divides his time between New Hampshire and Florida. His most recent bestsellers are Death Benefit, Cure, and Intervention.

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Editorials

Library Journal

In Cook's numerous best-selling medical thrillers, the nasty microbes and lethal diseases are never as loathsome as the greedy villains who spread illness for profit. Here, a cynical forensics doctor suspects that a for-profit medical firm is murdering its more costly subscribers. A Literary GuildR main selection.