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Foreign Body | 
 enlarge | Author: Robin Cook
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $4.54
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Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 4752
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 0399155023
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399155024
ASIN: 0399155023
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
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Product Description
A series of unexplained deaths in foreign hospitals sends an idealistic UCLA medical student on a desperate search for answers, in this chilling tale from the master of the medical thriller.
Jennifer Hernandez is a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, just completing an elective in general surgery, whose world is shattered during a break in an otherwise ordinary day. While relaxing in the surgical lounge of L.A. s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she half-listens to a piece on medical tourism, where first-world citizens travel to third-world countries for surgery. But when she hears her beloved grandmother s name mentioned, her own heart nearly stops: the CNN reporter says Maria Suarez-Hernandez had died, a day after undergoing a hip replacement in New Delhi s Queen Victoria Hospital.
Maria had raised Jennifer and her brothers from infancy, and their bond was unshakable. Still, the news that Maria had traveled to India was a shock to Jennifer, until she realized that it was the only viable option for the hardworking yet uninsured woman. Devastated, and desperate for answers, Jennifer takes emergency leave from school and heads to India, where relations with local officials go from sympathetic to sour as she presses for more information. With the discovery of other unexplained deaths followed by hasty cremations, Jennifer reaches out to her mentor, New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery, who has her own deep connection to Maria.
Laurie, along with her husband, Dr. Jack Stapleton, rushes to the younger woman s side, discovering a sophisticated medical facility with little margin for error. As the death count grows, so do the questions, leading Laurie and Jennifer to unveil a sinister, multilayered conspiracy of global proportions.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Pop Quiz! August 14, 2008
Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Which book by Robin Cook features an Intrepid Young Medical Student stumbling onto a nefarious scheme by Evil Big Corporate Medicine to cynically line their own pockets by sabotaging legitimate health care and murdering hapless patients, and whose Evil Deeds are only brought to a halt by the courageous investigation by the Medical Student, who braves overwhelming odds and mortal danger to see that Justice ultimately prevails?
Answer: All of them!
Cook is simply a One-Note-Johnny, who hasn't had an original idea since "Coma". This sorry book is no exception; a simple regurgitation of the same old story line, featuring some of the same old characters from previous books, going through the same old tired motions, against the same old villainous types. The only difference here is that the locale has been changed to India, the only fresh breeze of originality in the entire book.
I was so bored that last night I finally gave up on this waste of paper a little over halfway through at Chapter 23.
Further adding to the laugh factor this time, Cook's villainous cabal of murderers are so inept and incompetent that in their attempt to discredit "medical tourism" to India, they leak the news of each of the patients' deaths to CNN, which airs the stories immediately, even before the dead patients' next of kin are notified of the deaths, thereby ASSURING that they leave a trail of suspicion in their own wake.
These idjits were so incompetent it was laugh-out-loud absurd, like The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.
Good grief! Doesn't anyone at Putnam have the guts to tell Cook he's nothing more than a self-plagiarizing bore?
I'd give this minus stars if I possibly could. Save your money.
 fast-paced medical thriller August 7, 2008
Harriet Klausner
7 out of 15 found this review helpful
At the Queen Victoria Hospital in New Delhi, India, nurse Veena Chandra enters the room of sixty-four year old American medical tourist Maria Hernandez, who came here for a hip replacement as the costs are much less than in New York including travel expense. Veena injects a poison killing the woman as part of a deal she made to keep her mom and sisters safe from her abusive father. Afterward, Veena visits Nurses International Chief Cal Morgan to tell him she did the deed, but the patient thanked her before dying. Veena shocks Cal by having sex with him; afterward saying she just wanted to prove her father wrong about someone knowing about her father's molestation secret and wanting her before she commits suicide.
UCLA medical student Jennifer Hernandez is at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when CNN reports the death of a Marisa Hernandez of Queens. She calls her malingering dad who says Maria is in India having a hip replacement. Later that day she confirms her beloved grandma died in India. Knowing her dad would use his bad back as an excuse; Jennifer travels to India to bring her beloved grandma home. However, there she begins to learn of other odd deaths of medical tourists; she calls her mentor New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery who along with her spouse Dr. Jack Stapleton come to New Delhi only to learn there is something evil going on at modern Queen Victoria Hospital and if they are not careful they will be the next to die.
This fast-paced medical thriller comes from the headlines as Americans going to India for medical procedures has become a major "tourist" industry. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action while also slapping at the system of high cost of non health care in America. Although why the Astoria sexagenarian had to be murdered is explained late leaving a gap for too long, Robin Cook provides a powerful look at the newest health trend; going overseas for operations and cures.
Harriet Klausner
Great plot... August 17, 2008
anonymous
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Great story about what lengths "Big Medical Business" would go to, to discouratge Americans from going overseas for medical care. Lots of detail about modern-day India as a developing nation, and actually quite flattering re: the state of Indian medical care available for Westerners with more money than the average Indian. Cook brings back previous characters (Laurie, Jack) so the reader can catch up on their continuing relationship and personal lives as well as add to the plot. Enjoyable behind-the-scenes insight into the interaction between politicos, wealthy businessmen, and the law in a country where there is such a sharp divide between the old cultural ways and new technology--the Westernization effect the Internet has on traditional conservative countries has a major effect on the characters. I also enjoyed the "meanwhile, in New York/New Delhi" device to give a timeline to events.
Great plot and great research. But Cook's writing style has become more and more wooden over the years. Conversation is stilted; characters talk in the most unnatural ways that it is almost unbearable to read. If I had a big red stamp that said EXPOSITORY! and stamped every offending passage, I'd have run out of red ink before the end of the book. It finally became unreadable (in what universe to people TALK like that??) so I skimmed enough to get the gist of the story, which was fascinating.
This would have made a thrilling screenplay. I love Cook's ideas; if he would edit down the excessive conversations that do nothing to advance the story or develop the characters, I could go back to loving his books.
Cremations are Coming! August 7, 2008
The Bus Rider Review! (Los Angeles, CA)
3 out of 11 found this review helpful
This books rips the lid off the horrific medical scandals happening overseas today. With the high cost of operations soaring, uninsured health seekers opt for India and embark on "surgical tours," in order to save money on crucial operations. Robin Cook stirs the pot on this simmering yet back burner story and tells a compelling and compassionate tale about the terrible things that can happen to unsuspecting health seekers all alone in foreign land. Death and quick cremations as cover-ups, serve as a goose-pimple warning to those who are considering going under the knife in countries where gruesome outcomes are on the rise and in some cases, epidemic. Be warned.
Pam Ward, author
BAD GIRLS BURN SLOW: cremation, crime and the funeral business
Why anyone would buy this book is foreign to me August 18, 2008
Phoenix_dream (Wheaton, Il USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have long been a Robin Cook fan and when the library called and told me my reserve on this book was ready I looked forward to a nice week-end settling in and relaxing with a good read. Boy, was I disappointed! The topic itself is interesting and current - the wave of medical procedures going overseas due to the costs in the US. From there it goes waaaaaay downhill.
The writing is stilted and uninteresting. For example, when Neil first comes to India and talks to Jennifer I swear I was reading the first draft of a high school freshman writing class. I am no burning liberal (in fact, I am no liberal at all) and I have no Indian connections, but I found the drawing of the India people and the country itself to range from ludicrous to downright insulting. Not one of the characters was interesting (even though in some cases they were so in previous books). The plot itself limps along, with ludicrous twists and turns that make the Indian people look like smarmy villians in an old James Cagney film. I got 2/3 of the way through the book, hoping it would turn around to Robin's usual good-to-very-good writing, and then gave up. I could not make myself finish it.
Robin, take a little more time between books next time or look for some new characters. Please. You used to be so good - I'm sure the creative genius still thrives but not in this venture.
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