Aids cure older book ( )

Somewhat apropos of 2020 if you substitute COVID for AIDS. Though the publication date of this book is 2011, it was actually written 20 years ago. What if there were a cure ? Drama ensues. it was a little over the top when our hero is kidnapped and ends up in a Thai whorehouse via a cargo airplane. Characters seem real enough and we get to know them. Fine book. ( )

I opened this book to the foreword from the author, warning the reader that this is an early book of his, not re-written and packaged as a new novel (“I hate when authors do that” he states). It sounded familiar - right down to the final paragraph conceding that there is a “risk taking” about this novel that he isn’t sure he still has the capacity for. I had read it all before. Unbelievable! I had gone and bought a book I had already read!! Except that I hadn’t. None of the story was familiar. Turns out there are several ancient books his publisher has put out with the exact same foreword, with the title of the book cut-and-pasted in in the appropriate place.

I hate when authors do that.

But over to the story. This is the sort of fast-moving twisting-turning fiction we have come to expect from Harlan Coben, and considering it’s the work of a “naive lad” in his twenties it’s not half bad. Harking back to the early days of the AIDS crisis, it surrounds an apparent cure for the disease and a murderer apparently targeting those who have been successfully treated. The trademark jocularity is sparse but used effectively (the character Michael is asked whether anything unusual has appeared in his urine, and reports that “there was a Datsun Hatchback in there this morning”. Bravo).

As with this type of mystery novel it’s probably a case of picking the least likely person to have “dunnit” and you may well get it right (though I didn’t). Guessing the “why” is more tricky, and the explanation section that every such book has to go through tied my brain in knots, but I understood enough. More of the same please, but would it kill you to write a new foreword? ( )

I unashamedly admit I am a Harlan Coben fan - though only recently introduced to his works. I've read a number of his books in quick succession, so I knew it was only a matter a time that I would run into one that would just not do it for me.

Miracle Cure was that one.

This is Coben's second novel and in the edition I have he goes as far as to add a disclaimer at the beginning that states this is far from the standard that existing fans would expect and that perhaps not the place to start for new readers either. He does however acknowledge that these were his beginnings as a writer.

We all start our journeys somewhere and this novel is part of the journey that makes Coben the writer he is today. For that reason I made the effort to follow it to the end. Its hard to know whether my opinion would have been different had I not had later books to compare it to.

In general this took me longer to read than a HC book would, the writing style a bit more clumsy and not as well edited as his later works so it just didn't read as well.

The story follows a doctor on his quest to find a cure for the AIDS virus, the people trying to stop him and the normal murder, mayhem and twists that are Coben's trademark style. It is important to place yourself back in the early 90's when a lot less was known about the AIDS virus and fear of contracting it was rampant. Looking at the story with modern eyes will almost certainly impacts the way the story is viewed.

You can definitely see the beginnings of what would become a great career in the 'Thriller and Suspense' genre

( )

Michael is a pro basketball player, whose life changes drastically when he collapses on the court. He's rushed to the hospital. Sara rushes to her husband. They are stunned to find out that he has hepatitis, and devastated to find out that he has been diagnosed as HIV positive.

Michael is moved to the HIV clinic to be treated. Three patients from the clinic have been brutally murdered, and one of the doctor's has died from an apparent suicide.

Doctors are vying for more funding, an overzealous evangelist is calling the AIDs virus a sign from God that end of times are near, and all is not what it seems. Family members can't be trusted. Friends aren't really friends. ( )