Shock (Robin Cook)

Title: Shock

Author: Robin Cook

Released: 2001

Rating: 4/5

Basic Plot: Joanna dumps her boyfriend Carlton Williams and finds herself in need of money to complete her studies. Her friend Deborah shows her a newspaper article about Wingate Clinic that is offering $45,000 for people willing to donate their eggs for infertile patients. The two friends decide to take the offer and donate the eggs. Everything goes on peacefully till they complete their doctorate studies and come back to USA. Here their curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to find out what happened to their eggs. With the Wingate Clinic maintaining a strict silence about their workings, the two of them decide to use some illegal means to get this information.
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Proper Procedures
A big thing of this book is what should and shouldn't be done in the medical field. Greed is most shown in the character of Paul Saunders. He seems to be the one most in control of the Wingate Clinic, though this character trait should not be forgotten in Spencer Wingate. The whole thing of the infertility clinic is shown to be about cloning (as it relates to help with infertility). While cloning is an interesting option, no one donating their eggs knows what is really going on and those getting the eggs are sometimes coerced in going along with the experiment. But I can't really get into it all without giving away some major spoilers.

Eye Candy
Deborah Cochrane is a very liberal character. Joanna Meissner, on the other hand, is much more conservative. When they both decide to infiltrate the Wingate Clinic to find out what happened to Joanna's eggs, Deborah dresses very sexually. She says this is to have fun with what they're doing. Her dress does help in certain instances and I find it a nice take on how women don't always dress to please men but for their own enjoyment.

Taking Science and Making a Compelling Thriller
I enjoy Michael Crichton because he has a great grasp on writing about current scientific news in a format non-scientists can enjoy (some of his book even have Appendixes). Cook brings up the ethical aspects of science in this book and it is great. The cloning aspect of the book isn't beginner stuff, but he managed to write it so that I'd understand what was going on. Again, a lot of the ethical parts of this novel would require me to give spoilers. But my point still stands that some times things get complicated, but Cook manages to make me understand.

Final Thoughts
This is another good book by Robin Cook. He's quickly becoming an author I like and trust. He writes medical thrillers and reading about things like that is just great. Of course by great I mean creepy in a fun way. One of the security guards has a thing against whores and I feel that's not utilized like it could've been.