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A successful doctor with a fairy tale marriage has everything but the child she wants. Obsessed with becoming pregnant, she travels to Hong Kong to explore reproductive technologies and finds she is in incredible danger.Tags
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This book started off with a lot of promise. I received this book as a hand-me-down - I get many of my books this way - but the story quickly unraveled. Rather than stick with medicine, there's now espionage and attempted murder. While a good thriller can have medicine and murder all in one, this book is unfortunately not one of them.
I found myself plodding through the book, quickly reading it just so I could get to the end. This is the first Robin Cook book I have read, and from what I see in the reviews, this is not the best work. I might pick up another Cook book, but if I ever buy one, I will make sure to check the reviews first. The ending to this book was unsatisfying and disappointing, with no real solution. The whole conspiracy show more of the Women's Clinic was interesting, but fell flat on delivery in this book. It might provide a diversion in the waiting room or on a airplane, but really, it's not worth reading. show less
I found myself plodding through the book, quickly reading it just so I could get to the end. This is the first Robin Cook book I have read, and from what I see in the reviews, this is not the best work. I might pick up another Cook book, but if I ever buy one, I will make sure to check the reviews first. The ending to this book was unsatisfying and disappointing, with no real solution. The whole conspiracy show more of the Women's Clinic was interesting, but fell flat on delivery in this book. It might provide a diversion in the waiting room or on a airplane, but really, it's not worth reading. show less
To say I’m not the biggest Cook fan would not be an understatement. The only reason I picked up this book is because it was on my bookshelf and needed to be read. At first I was a bit bored with it. I did not feel pulled into the characters until half way through the book when things were really heating up. The story line itself was okay although a bit outlandish…but I guess that is why I kept reading it. I felt that the ending was too tidy.
This was typical Robin Cook. I'm not sure I found the main character's obsession with finding the truth to be believable. Also, it was a relief when he finally introduced a colorful, likable character about 3/4 of the way through.
Vital Signs by Robin Cook
Marissa's got it all, her pediatrician practice and a loving husband. She can't get pregnant due to clogged tubes and she discovers others have the same problem as her. She teams up with another and they travel to other countries to get the records to see if they can discover exactly who is to blame for it all.
I'll probably never make it to Austraila so it was very good to be thee for their sightseeing. The places and scenes are priceless!
Someone is trying to kill them, because they know too much.
Marissa's got it all, her pediatrician practice and a loving husband. She can't get pregnant due to clogged tubes and she discovers others have the same problem as her. She teams up with another and they travel to other countries to get the records to see if they can discover exactly who is to blame for it all.
I'll probably never make it to Austraila so it was very good to be thee for their sightseeing. The places and scenes are priceless!
Someone is trying to kill them, because they know too much.
A woman undergoing infertility treatments follows a highly unlikely series of clues, disasters, and assassination attempt in her quest to find out why TB has closed her fallopian tubes.
"The Queen", by Nick Cutter, is the first novel that I have read by this author. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. Honestly, there was promise at the beginning of the plot, based on Rudyard and Elizabeth's characters and their time in Africa. However, it quickly declined from there. The plot was all over the place. The scenes were disturbing and confusing. Some of the dialogue just wasn't very well written. I found myself skimming pages, just to try and figure out where this novel was going. This was one novel that I was happy to see end.
As always, I read the reviews of others. The majority of the reviews posted thus far, have enjoyed this novel. The average rating is four starts. So, I'm definitely in the show more minority here. I would recommend reading some of the positive reviews before making up your mind. show less
As always, I read the reviews of others. The majority of the reviews posted thus far, have enjoyed this novel. The average rating is four starts. So, I'm definitely in the show more minority here. I would recommend reading some of the positive reviews before making up your mind. show less
Robin Cook can always deliver. This was a great book. I recently finished a book that I like even more and have been telling everyone about it. It is called, "The Rx Factor" by author J. Thomas Shaw. This is a fiction medical thriller, which is about a failed cancer researcher who meets a female scientist who reignites his passion and interest in medical researcher when she decides to open a low cost clinic in Mexico for terminally ill patients. She plans to offer them an experimental medication. An explosion on the island leads them into a journey of twists and turns as they discover that the United States Government will stop at nothing to block their efforts.
It's based upon fact! http://www.therxfactor.com/
It's based upon fact! http://www.therxfactor.com/
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72+ Works 43,241 Members
Robin (Robert William Arthur) Cook, the master of the medical thriller novel, was born to Edgar Lee Cook, a commercial artist and businessman, and Audrey (Koons) Cook on May 4, 1940, in New York City. Cook spent his childhood in Leonia, New Jersey, and decided to become a doctor after seeing a football injury at his high school. He earned a B.A. show more from Wesleyan University in 1962, his M.D. from Columbia University in 1966, and completed postgraduate training at Harvard before joining the U.S. Navy. Cook began his first novel, The Year of the Intern, while serving on a submarine, basing it on his experiences as a surgical resident. In 1979, Cook wed Barbara Ellen Mougin, on whom the character Denise Sanger in Brain is based. When Year of the Intern did not do particularly well, Cook began an extensive study of other books in the genre to see what made a bestseller. He decided to focus on suspenseful medical mysteries, mixing intricately plotted murder and intrigue with medical technology, as a way to bring controversial ethical and social issues affecting the medical profession to the attention of the general public. His subjects include organ transplants, genetic engineering, experimentation with fetal tissue, cancer research and treatment, and deadly viruses. Cook put this format to work very successfully in his next books, Coma and Sphinx, which not only became bestsellers, but were eventually adapted for film. Three others, Terminal, Mortal Fear, and Virus, and Cook's first science- fiction work, Invasion, have been television movies. In 2014 her title, Cell made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Vital Signs
- Original title
- Vital Signs
- Alternate titles
- Embryo
- Original publication date
- 1991
- People/Characters
- Marissa Blumenthal; Robert Buchanan; Wendy
- Important places
- Australia; Hong Kong, China; Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Dedication
- This book is dedicated to the countless couples who have suffered the emotional and physical trials and tribulations of infertility and its modern treatments.
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
Vital Signs could not have been written without the assistance of Jean Reeds, who professional and personal knowledge of the human heart is matched only by her own. - First words
- The infecting bacteria came in a swift gush as if flushed from a sewer. (Prologue)
Marissa stopped in here tracks in the middle of the elegant Oriental carpet that dominated the master bedroom.
"What's that street sign over there?" (Epilogue) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)There was always something! (Prologue)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And I can't think of anyone I'd rather go into hiding with than you.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)We're going to adopt a little Chinese baby from Hong Kong. (Epilogue) - Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Vital Signs is the orignal title; Embryo is the title of the books published in other countries.
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- 15 — Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese (Portugal)
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 53
- ASINs
- 10