Pandemic
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4.1 • 11 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Pandemic is an explosive medical thriller from New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook.
After a young, seemingly healthy woman collapses suddenly on the NYC subway and dies by the time she reaches the hospital, her case is initially chalked up to a virulent strain of influenza. That is, until she ends up on Dr. Jack Stapleton's autopsy table, where Jack discovers something eerily fishy: First, that the young woman has had a heart transplant, and second, that her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart.
Strangely, two more incidences of young people with this same sudden and rapid illness follow, and Jack fears that this could be the start of an unprecedented pandemic. But the facts aren't adding up. Something is off about these cases, something creepy, and only Jack can figure it out before it's too late.
Thus begins a race against time, during which Jack unveils the dark underbelly of the organ-transplant market. His name is Bui Zhao, a businessman and hospital board member who has been cheating the system by using organs and cells from chimeric pigs, via the gene-editing biotechnology CRISPER/CAS9, which allows pig genes to be inserted into living human cells.
In a climactic mortal showdown, Jack must face Zhao, the megalomaniac willing to risk the fate of the world to purse his commercial interests, if he wants to save the future of medicine.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When a seemingly healthy woman collapses on a subway train in Manhattan and dies shortly afterward from an unknown cause, New York City medical examiner Jack Stapleton, the hero of this unremarkable thriller from bestseller Cook (Charlatans), suspects viral pneumonia and fears that the city might be on the verge of a pandemic. Since the woman's phone and purse were stolen from her as she lay dying in the subway car, she's declared a Jane Doe when she's delivered to Bellevue Hospital. A tattoo on the body eventually leads Jack to identify her as Carol Stewart, who recently received a heart transplant but, oddly, has no trace of immunosuppressants in her system. Jack's investigation, aided by a colleague who is, naturally, a stunningly attractive woman, leads him to butt heads with his wife, Laurie, the head of the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who wants to avoid an unnecessary panic. A maverick, Jack isn't afraid to ignore Laurie's orders in his quest for the truth behind Carol's death. Cook offers nothing that genre readers haven't seen before.
