Friday, July 25, 2014

CELL BY ROBIN COOK - REVIEW

18079544
pic and description taken from 

Description:
The New York Times� bestselling author and master of the medical thriller returns with a top-notch fusion of groundbreaking medical science and edge-of-your-seat suspense. George Wilson, M.D., a radiology resident in Los Angeles, is about to enter a profession on the brink of an enormous paradigm shift, foreshadowing a vastly different role for doctors everywhere. The smartphone is poised to take on a new role in medicine, no longer as a mere medical app but rather as a fully customizable personal physician capable of diagnosing and treating even better than the real thing. It is called iDoc. George’s initial collision with this incredible innovation is devastating. He awakens one morning to find his fiancée dead in bed alongside him, not long after she participated in an iDoc beta test. Then several of his patients die after undergoing imaging procedures. All of them had been part of the same beta test. Is it possible that iDoc is being subverted by hackers—and that the U.S. government is involved in a cover-up? Despite threats to both his career and his freedom, George relentlessly seeks the truth, knowing that if he’s right, the consequences could be lethal.

My Thoughts / Review:

I enjoyed this book.  I cannot remember if I have read any of Robin Cook's book before, but after reading this one, I will definately try another book.  I listened to this book on iTunes.  The narrator was really good.  Sometimes that can make or break a book sometimes.

George Wilson woke up one day to see his fiancee lying dead next to him.  A few months later, George goes to a meeting about the iDoc app for phone.  While he was sitting through the announcement of a beta test, he sees an old college "friend" and realized that she took the idea of iDoc from a conversation they had in College.  

Something doesn't sit right with George while he is listening to the presentation.  He goes back to his home and looks though his fiance's things that he had packed away in a closet.  Sure enough he finds his fiance's iPhone and looks to see if she was part of the iDoc beta testing.  She was.  He doesn't quite know what to do with that information.

George was never a very outgoing man, but he had a neighbor that always asked him questions about his health.  Every one assumed George new everything about being a doctor.  They didn't realize he was in radiology, and if he was looking at the inside of you, he could tell you, but he didn't quite know too much about other sicknesses.  His neighbor was convinced he was his personal Dr.  One day George realized that his neighbor hadn't asked him questions for a couple of weeks, so he went to talk to him.  Georges asked why the neighbor why he hasn't been asking questions about his diabetes anymore.  His friend tells him he has his own personal doctor right on his phone.  Later that same day said neighbor ended up dead.

Two more deaths come along right after and George started suspecting that iDoc was the cause of all the death.  When he finally decides to go to someone about what information he has about iDoc being the cause of death.  He decided to get his hacker neighbor to be part of the discovery.  He offers him $10,000 to help him.

Things get very interesting very quickly after he goes to his hacker friend.  When George's hacker friend finally broke the code, he gave George his fiancees phone back and packs up to lease right away.  He knew that there would be some sever repercussions when he hacked it.  George goes home to put some things together to get out of town with his friend.

George decides to go to see his friend from college that he knows is part of the iDoc team.  She tells him she will help him.

George stepped on a time bomb when he decided to find out about iDoc and see if it was some how killing all these patients.  I enjoyed the twists and turns in this book.  I kept me engaged the whole time.  It's interesting, and so intense in other parts.  It just a good book to read (or listen to ;) ).  I feel like I have already given too much away, but I enjoyed it and could keep going on and on.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was that whole concept of the book seemed way too unrealistic.  It was definitely interesting, but really an iPhone as your personal Dr.  I don't think so.  I couldn't get over that part but it was still a great book.  Exciting.

Source:  I bought this for myself off iTunes.  I am not affiliated with iTunes in any way, and these are my own PERSONAL thought on the book.


My Rating:

Where to Buy:



About the Author
Robin Cook
pic and bio taken from Goodreads

Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine and topics affecting public health.

He is best known for being the author who combined medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. Several of his books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List. Several of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest.

Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard. He divides his time between homes in Boston and Florida where he lives with his wife Barbara. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to keep the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical problems.


Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in 1969.[1]


Cook is a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees, led by Chairman Joseph B. Gildenhorn, are appointed to six-year terms by the President of the United States.[2]


[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, in - vitro fertilization, research funding, managed care, drug research, and organ transplantation.[3]


Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know anything about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as ethically questioning as stem cell research."[4]


Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in it. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 23 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're not going to go into a hospital."[4](less)

2 comments:

  1. I am not sure if I can handle unrealistic even if it is well done. I am so glad you liked this though, it does sound like it was well written. :)

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    Replies
    1. Yes unrealistic is bothersome to me as well :). But, yes, I did enjoy reading this one.

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