Today, I would like to talk about a different kind of cookbook: Robin Cook books. *rim shot*

Seriously, though, Robin Cook is one of my favorite novelists. He is a physician, and his brand of medical science fiction is right up my alley, given that I am a scientist who has worked in biochemistry and molecular biology. I may not be a medical doctor, but I definitely enjoy the science in his novels. I also love imagining the characters in my head (what reader doesn’t?).

So, today I am going to write about three of Dr. Cook’s novels which I thoroughly enjoyed.

First, there is Toxin. This book centers on a deadly strain of E.coli bacteria which gets into the food chain and kills the main protagonist’s daughter. Given that the scenario is very realistic and could happen anywhere, this novel is frightening in a non-supernatural kind of way. The main protagonist, Dr. Kim Reggis, is a believable character (my mind casts Goran Visnjic as him, without the accent) and one secondary character, Roger the fast-food manager, really stood out for me for some reason (perhaps because Dr. Reggis belts him one). There is also a scary scene near the end.

Then there is Shock, most of which I read while on vacation years ago in Wildwood, New Jersey. The main story, about women who donate their eggs to a scientific company, is definitely compelling, and I kept turning the pages, wanting to find out what was going to happen next. However, although the two main protagonists, Deborah and Joanna, are well developed in terms of their intelligence and curiosity, they were rather disappointing to me in terms of how they relate to each other. They are supposed to be close friends, but they never cry in each other’s arms, for example. Nor do they stay up late venting to each other about their past boyfriends.

Finally, let’s talk about Vector. I loved this story, which is about bioterrorism. Of course, I read this book before 9/11, so perhaps if I had read it afterwards, I would have been frightened rather than fascinated. It has very interesting characters, especially Yuri, the Russian cab driver, and the two ex-soldiers who are his cohorts. And given the US’s current relations with Russia and the very real threat of bioterrorism, it will probably come off today as scary.

If you have read any of Dr. Cook’s novels, which ones have you read? What did you think of them?