Mortal Fear HC Robin Cook 1988 Putnam 1st print

Description

Mortal Fear Hardcover
by Robin Cook (Author)

An extraordinary network of evil has been developing a genetic time-bomb and internist Jason Howard is the one man who can keep it from going off. A suspenseful story from the bestselling author of Coma.

The man who invented medical techno-horror takes you on a startling and chilling odyssey into the origins of life–and death. When an eminent biomolecular geneticist dies violently before his eyes, a doctor must use more than his medical knowledge to explain what he comes to believe is murder, and to stop a scientific breakthrough from becoming a curse instead of a miracle. There was a lot that internist Jason Howard didn’t know about Dr. Alvin Hayes. But when the scientist met his sudden end, it all came out with a vengeance–for the academically respected geneticist had led a double life, and the private side was damning. Dismissing official police reports linking Hayes’s death to his associations with the sordid side of society, Jason believes Hayes was silenced to keep him from revealing the results of his research, and the secret lies not in the back streets of Boston’s erotic underworld, the Combat Zone, but in the high-tech genetics laboratories of the Good Health Plan clinic. Overcoming his own personal emotional problems, Jason turns his powers of diagnosis to deduction, vowing to solve the mystery no matter who tries to stop him. His search will take him from gleaming modern labs to seamy sex clubs, from Beacon Hill drawing rooms to the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and back, before the pieces of the deadly puzzle fall into place. By then, Jason has unearthed the scientific breakthrough Hayes was killed to hide–and has himself become the target of a malevolent cabal, bend on using the origins of life to create a hell on earth. With this disturbing story, DNA research is shown to have a fearful potential, not only through possible mistakes and accidents, but ironically even through success. Splendidly researched and intricately plotted, Mortal Fear is Robin Cook at his prophetic and galvanizing best.

Hardcover: 364 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition

The ethics issue here is concerned with science specializations like genetic engineering and the grave possibilities these have for mankind when used for less than noble purposes by humans playing God. The main character in this book, Dr. Jason Howard, struggles to find out why so many of his patients are dying somewhat prematurely after getting clean bills of health not that long ago. Has something gotten out of hand at the hospital where he works? Is there a new deadly infectious disease on the loose? The book takes you down this path until you eventually figure out what is going on and why the sudden deaths of patients. The shallow character development comes into play with first Dr. Howard and then secondly with other characters he interacts with. Primarily a stripper whom he is attracted to but never has the nerve to approach in any gritty way. We also know that Dr. Howard suffered a devastating loss with the death of his wife but never really see or feel his emotional grief over this grave loss. Where the book does succeed is in keeping the reader interested enough to read through till the end to unravel the mystery of the medical disasters taking place and also to find out the other tiny mysteries related to the main mystery.

Excellent as are all of Robin Cook’s books…very good and worth reading. Hard to go wrong on Robin Cook or Stephen King. They capture your attention form early on and hold you spell bound till the last page. Awesome!

Shelf wear to dust jacket. 1st printing. 0-399-13318-6.

0-688-03969-3

Book is in near mint condition. Light highlighting throughout.