Foreign Body
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4.0 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this chilling novel from the bestselling “master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times), NYC medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton rush to India to help a UCLA student investigating medical tourism—and a sinister global conspiracy.
Devastated by the news that her beloved granmother has died after hip surgery in New Delhi, UCLA medical student Jennifer Hernandez flies to India, desperate for answers. Jennifer’s grandmother appears to be a victim of medical tourism—uninsured first-world citizens traveling to third-world countries for more affordable surgery. With revelations of other unexplained deaths and pressure from Indian hospital officials for a hasty cremation, Jennifer reaches out to her mentor, New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery.
Laurie, along with her husband, Dr. Jack Stapleton, rush to Jennifer’s side, only to discover a sophisticated medical facility with little margin for error. But as the death count grows, so do the questions, leading Laurie and Jennifer to unveil a multilayered conspiracy of global proportions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Cook (Critical) stumbles in this formulaic thriller about the timely subject of medical tourism, the trend in which U.S. citizens seek to save costs on expensive surgery through treatment overseas. At the center of the drama is Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, whose grandmother has died in a New Delhi hospital following hip replacement surgery. Suspicious about the circumstances, Hernandez immediately flies to India to investigate. There she not only discovers a number of similar deaths of U.S. citizens but also runs into the one-two punch of a desperate Indian medical industry struggling to block all publicity about the deaths and a huge American HMO that wants nothing more than the widest exposure of the apparent medical missteps in the Third World. Implausible plot twists, unconvincing villains, silly dialogue and a convenient, all-too-happy ending make this one of Cook's rare weak efforts.
