From Publishers Weekly
Cook constructs a promising yet ultimately wearying plot around the issue of therapeutic cloning, picking up where his last novel, Shock, left off. Readers are once again privy to the morally questionable goings on at the Wingate Infertility Clinic in the Bahamas, but its doctors are side players here. Leading the action is former Harvard biotech ace Daniel Lowell, who has formed his own company to investigate a cloning technique in which a patient with an incurable disease is returned to health through the injection of stem cells. In this case the disease is Parkinson's, and the patient is Ashley Butler, a conservative U.S. senator from the South. For political reasons, Butler opposes the legalization of Lowell's technique. Yet Butler-given about a year to live-is willing to switch sides if Lowell agrees to try out the treatment on him first. The kicker is that the fundamentalist Butler wants the stem cells injected into his brain to come from a very specific source: the Shroud of Turin, the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Cook provides plenty of action as well as polemical asides about the ethics of cloning (he believes politics intrudes far too often into medical and biotech issues), yet readers waiting for a jolt or a revelation will be disappointed. Cook occasionally lets loose the propulsive narrative force that characterizes his best work, but much of the plot is stale and contrived. Readers will have to endure characters who fail to stir emotions (such as a band of corny mobsters), as well as descriptions of Bahamanian resorts that read like paid promotional material.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Daniel Lowell, a stem cell researcher, has developed a way to change a person's DNA, and Senator Ashley Butler wants to be the first to try it to forestall his Parkinson's disease. So how can he do this without anyone knowing? That's the gist of this medical thriller, as only Robin Cook can write them. Dylan Baker performs this story of deceit, self-betrayal, and medical ethics with aplomb, focusing especially on character development as the conspiracy unfolds. The timely issue of stem cell research is explored with all of its negative ramifications. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
Cook's latest medical thriller centers around two men--Daniel Lowell, a brilliant researcher, and Ashley Butler, a powerful southern senator. Daniel and his girlfriend, Stephanie D'Agostino, are the cofounders of CURE, a medical research company, the existence of which relies heavily on biotechnology legislation that Butler is trying to block. However, he has an ulterior motive: he is suffering from Parkinson's disease and wants Daniel to treat him using cloned cells. Daniel and Stephanie are taken aback, since their procedure has yet to get FDA approval, meaning they would have to do the surgery in another country. And they're shocked to learn that Butler wants the cells taken not from a donor but from the infamous Shroud of Turin. He puts Daniel and Stephanie in contact with the unscrupulous doctors at the Wingate Clinic (last seen in Cook's previous novel, Shock [2001]) in Nassau. But before they can go to the Wingate to prepare for the procedure, Daniel and Stephanie must go to Turin, to retrieve a piece of the Shroud. Cook is at his best when focusing on fascinating, cutting-edge biotechnology procedures. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
San Francisco Chronicle
...keeps the suspense mounting and the pages turning.
Book Description
The New York Times bestseller is now in paperback.
Power, religion, and bioscience collide in the new novel from the master of the medical thriller.
Download Description
"What could the Shroud of Turin, a conservative Southern senator, and an entrepreneurial researcher have in common? Politics, religion, and bioscience collide in the latest medical thriller from the master in the field. Senator Ashley Butler is a quintessential Southern demagogue whose support of traditional American values includes a knee-jerk reaction against virtually all biotechnologies. When he's called to chair a subcommittee introducing legislation to ban new cloning technology, the senator views his political future in bold relief; and Dr. Daniel Lowell, inventor of the technique that will take stem cell research to the next level, sees a roadblock positioned before his biotech startup. The two seemingly opposite personalities clash during the senate hearings, but the men have a common desire. Butler's hunger for political power far outstrips his concern for the unborn; and Lowell's pursuit of gargantuan personal wealth and celebrity overrides any considerations for patients' well-being. Further complicating the proceedings is the confidential news that Senator Butler has developed Parkinson's disease-leading the senator and the researcher into a Faustian pact. In a perilous attempt to prematurely harness Lowell's new technology, the therapy leaves the senator with the horrifying effects of temporal lobe epilepsy-seizures of the most bizarre order. Torn from the headlines, Seizure is a cautionary tale for a time where biotechnology pulls us into a promising yet frightening new world."
Seizure FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Senator Ashley Butler is a quintessential southern demagogue, whose support of traditional American values includes a knee-jerk reaction against virtually all biotechnologies remotely associated with human reproduction. As the chairman of a subcommittee on health policy, he introduces legislation to ban a new cloning procedure that would take stem cell research to the next level. Dr. Daniel Lowell, the inventor of the technique, sees the proposed ban as a blow to his biotech startup, and to people poised to benefit from its promised therapies." The two formidable egos clash during the Senate hearing, but the men have a common desire. Butler's hunger for political power far outstrips his purported concern for the unborn, while Lowell's craving for personal wealth and celebrity overrides ethical considerations for patients' well-being. Further complicating the situation is the confidential news that Senator Butler has developed a progressive form of Parkinson's disease, which threatens his political future and leads the senator and the researcher into a Faustian pact. After a perilous attempt to prematurely harness Lowell's new technology, the senator is left with the horrifying effects of temporal lobe epilepsy - seizures of the most bizarre order.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Cook constructs a promising yet ultimately wearying plot around the issue of therapeutic cloning, picking up where his last novel, Shock, left off. Readers are once again privy to the morally questionable goings on at the Wingate Infertility Clinic in the Bahamas, but its doctors are side players here. Leading the action is former Harvard biotech ace Daniel Lowell, who has formed his own company to investigate a cloning technique in which a patient with an incurable disease is returned to health through the injection of stem cells. In this case the disease is Parkinson's, and the patient is Ashley Butler, a conservative U.S. senator from the South. For political reasons, Butler opposes the legalization of Lowell's technique. Yet Butler-given about a year to live-is willing to switch sides if Lowell agrees to try out the treatment on him first. The kicker is that the fundamentalist Butler wants the stem cells injected into his brain to come from a very specific source: the Shroud of Turin, the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Cook provides plenty of action as well as polemical asides about the ethics of cloning (he believes politics intrudes far too often into medical and biotech issues), yet readers waiting for a jolt or a revelation will be disappointed. Cook occasionally lets loose the propulsive narrative force that characterizes his best work, but much of the plot is stale and contrived. Readers will have to endure characters who fail to stir emotions (such as a band of corny mobsters), as well as descriptions of Bahamanian resorts that read like paid promotional material. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Like Coma and Cook's other books, this latest thriller revolves around current controversial medical issues. Two scientists involved in stem cell research and therapeutic cloning are forced by a conservative Southern senator to use their untested gene therapy to cure his Parkinson's disease. Since the procedure requires DNA, the senator asks them to use blood from the Shroud of Turin. The scientists must travel from Boston to Italy to the Bahamas, constantly avoiding scrutiny by people trying either tostop them or to discover their plans. The procedure finally takes place within the last 70 pages, making for an anticlimactic ending, especially given the possibilities established by the overall premise. With a number of loose ends not tied up in a completely satisfactory way, the book almost begs for a sequel. Still, Cook's fans will certainly enjoy his latest, which belongs in most popular fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/03.]-Joel W. Tscherne, Cleveland P.L. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Public antagonists become conspirators as a medical entrepreneur performs a controversial operation on a duplicitous politician. In an afterword, Cook (Shock, 2001, etc.) warns us that political prohibitions against embryonic stem-cell research are misinformed and will only make things worse. Here, they're bad enough for Dr. David Lowell, a brilliant, egotistical, and bit greedy researcher who quits Harvard to found a struggling for-profit company that will, he hopes, make millions when it develops a complicated technique involving embryonic cloning that has cured Parkinson's in mice. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, antiabortion Senator Ashley Butler heads a subcommittee considering a bill that will ban the procedure. Called to testify before the committee, Dr. Lowell fails to persuade the senator that his technique isn't killing babies, and Lowell is later contacted by the senator's aide, Carol Manning, for a secret meeting. It turns out the senator has Parkinson's and is willing to stall the bill in his committee, as well as pay hundreds of thousands in secret PAC money to Lowell and his sexy, competent lover and business partner, Dr. Stephanie D'Agostino, to perform the operation on him secretly, with two conditions: that this be done in the Bahamas at the new Wingate Clinic, and that the cloning involve DNA taken from blood residues on the Shroud of Turin. The senator offers to sponsor a bill limiting the amount of damages in lawsuits against charities-just as a New York cardinal wants in wake of the church's sex scandals. Calls are made to the Vatican, and, while getting the sample in Turin, the doctors have their first of many brushes with danger, involving priests, Mafiosi, andother types tainted by incompetence, greed, and irrational fears. Despite all, the doctors actually pull off the operation, though Murphy's Law takes over in ways no one can expect. Typical Cook: lifeless dialogue, weak prose, and hokey plot, but a sound message: ambitious doctors and scheming politicians only increase the suffering that, deep down, both want to cure.
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