Foreign Body

Foreign Body
Robin Cook
436 pages hardback
2008

Foreign Body is one of many that Robin Cook has written in the Medical Thriller genre.  A fellow Menchie worker told me that he liked Robin Cook books so I went to our local library and there were only 2 on the shelf (neither of which were the titles that he had read).  The one on medical tourism caught my attention and it was set in India.  The story started out pretty fast-paced for the first chapter or so, then it became a bit of a labor to read and I found the characters lacking depth.  The ending, although predictable, again picked up in pace but there were a lot of pages in the middle when the same situation was being described time and again from person to person.  I found it hard to really connect with any of the characters and yes the bad guys were clearly bad, but the good guys were neutral and when I finished the story I did not find myself missing anyone like I sometimes do with a really good read.  The book does seem authentic enough with its use of medical terms and those desiring a glance at India will not be disappointed and I liked the intent of the last sentence (but writing it out would give away the ending).  Over-all, it was too many pages for the good that came from it, I hope that does not sound too harsh.  Robin Cook is known as a #1 New York Times bestselling author and has written at least 27 novels so maybe i just did not pick his best work.