Intervention (Jack Stapleton Series #9)
3.1
90
5
1
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780425235386 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 06/29/2010 |
| Series: | A Medical Thriller Series , #9 |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Sales rank: | 499,134 |
| Product dimensions: | 4.20(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.00(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Intervention
3.1 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
88 reviews.
 |
I was truly disappointed with this book. I liked the beginning when Jack was determined to find the cause of death for the young girl, however the dual plots between Jack and his friends from college made no sense to me.
The ending was the real disappointment. It was too unrealistic and seemed to suddenly end as though Mr Cook was tired of writing and felt like he needed to stop. Immediately.
|
|
Especially in the beginning, it was a slow read. Some of the issues were not typical medical issues. It is an okay read, but not one of Cook's best books.
|
|
I was a little upset with this Robin Cook book. It almost felt like he was trying to jump on the "Holy Grail" bandwagon. I usually enjoy Robin Cooks book from start to finish and can't wait to pass it along to me best friend to read so we can talk about it. This one not so much. It was an interesting idea, just not what I was expecting to read about.
|
|
I usually can't wait to get my hands on another Robin Cook novel. After reading this one, I will hesitate about my enthusiam. This book jumped along from one subject to the next with barely getting into the "meat" of any except about the ossuary, which I had a hard time following. Jack was a real jerk with his handling of his wife and sick son, JJ (very original name, by the way). I thought we might get into the chiropractor versus doctor controversy, but no, we left that also. Did he ever solve a whole case as to cause of death in this one? Such a disappointing reading, I'm sorry I stayed up until 2a.m. just to get it out of my way and too a book I can enjoy!!
|
|
I was very disappointed with this book because I have enjoyed other Cook books. This one just wasn't very good. Cook tries too hard to show off his medical expertise. And it also seemed to be another Dan Brown wanna be book. Not sure why I even finished it - probably kept hoping it would get better, after all it was a Robin Cook book.
|
|
THIS BOOK WAS ONLY OK - NOT NEARLY AS INTERESTING AS PRIOR BOOKS. A BOOK TO READ - NOT MUCH MORE - DOESN'T STICK WITH YOU - IN FACT, I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND IT - A GOOD AUTHOR - BUT KIND OF BORING BOOK!
|
|
Having read all of this author's previous books, I was totally dismayed by this supremely boring story and its poorly conceived characters. Together with being a crude attempt to ride on the coattails of the "religious symbols/icons" fiction genre, it has poorly developed storylines. All the personalities, including the returning Jack and Laurie Stapleton, were portrayed as either self-serving and sociopathic or had the appeal of whimpy nonentities...but all were lacking any depth of character whatsoever.
While researching alternate medicine problems, the usual crusading Dr. Jack Stapleton's attempts were abruptly ended with only a weak explanation. It was as though another book idea was suddenly substituted for the original idea. I was completely disappointed in this book.
|
|
I am tired of authors having to copy The DaVinci Code. It cheapens every author who puts the mighty dollar above respect for their fans. With interest of medical thrillers dropping Robin Cook hopes to inject new life but it doesn't work.
|
|
I found the plot lacking in authinticity and the characters totally juvinal. Too much information and some of it very redundent. The publishers must have been relying on author readership instead on novel content.
|
|
Robin Cook's newest book begins with two separate but somewhat equally engaging plots. In one, main character Dr. Jack Stapleton in the course of his duties as a medical examiner stumbles across a case where a young woman dies from the results of what apparently was a visit to a chiropractor. Dr. Stapleton then goes on a massive investigation of chiropractic medicine specifically, and alternative medicine in general. In the parallel plot, an archeologist, Shawn Daughtry stumbles upon a historical find that has the potential to upset some of the basic religious tenets of the Catholic Church. Daughtry and his wife manage to obtain this archeological find and get it to the United States. What disappointed me was how Cook allowed the alternative medicine plot just fizzle out because the main character suddenly decides it would be futile to continue. I have read just about all of Cook's books and I have never seen a main character give up so quickly on an investigation. It just seemed an unnatural act for a Robin Cook main character. From that point on, the archeological find-plot takes over. This turn of events was gravely disappointing to me as a Robin Cook reader. Even the main character's actions in the end of this book were unnatural and diasppointing. I can not in good conscious place this high on my list of favorite Robin Cook books.
|
|
I was quite disappointed in the story .. well actually, there are two plots in this book and neither really works.
I wouldn't recommend this work of Cook's to any of my friends and I have always enjoyed his books in the past.
Sorry Robin, you fell out of your nest on this one.
|
|
ZERO entertainment and horrific characters(and not in a good way). The monk is a direct rip off from the da'vici code. His attempt to ride the money train off that same genre is well...a train wreck. Dialogue is stilted and sophmoric, the relationships are worse. The males are all emotionally stunted and the female characters are mindless handmaidens which he throws a modicum of, what he considers, independant verbiage at. I don't know what kind of men and women he's been hanging around with, but wow...amazingly archaic and sad. Then he spends half the book crucifying(pun intended) the naturaopathic community at large and chiropractors specifically, I would say at the expense of the book but it is so bad already. Deaths attributed to naturopathic medicine pale in comparision to the deaths attributed to his beloved conventional medicine(It is estimated that in 1995, nosocomial infections cost $4.5 billion and contributed to more than 88,000 deaths-one death every 6 minutes;Nosocomial Infection Update
Robert A. Weinstein, Cook County Hospital & Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, USA).
The final wrap up is worse than the ramp up. Painful to the end.
|
|
TO KEEP MY COMMENTS AS PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE (GIVEN PAST IMMENSELY ENJOYABLE HOURS OF READING PLEASURE) I WILL MAKE THESE STATEMENTS:
THE TWO FOLD PLOT WAS VERY DISCONNECTED, ONE BEING A DAN BROWN KNOCKOFF, THE OTHER KIND OF STATUS QUO (BUT NOT REALLY). THE MAIN CHARACTER IS SHALLOW, HIS WIFE IS A PITIFULL MARTYR. THERE WAS VERY LITTLE DEVELOPMENT OF A STORYLINE IN THIS SUB PLOT. LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, THE ENDING OF BOTH PLOTS WAS EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING AS WELL AS UNBELIEVABLE. THE BOOK WAS HARD TO FINISH, AND AT THE END I FELT CHEATED.
|
|
Suppose that you are reading a rather scholarly book by Al Gore on global warming. Things are going along as might be expected- a big problem needs to be solved, yet it looks unsolvable. Suddenly the book takes a new turn. It is as if Pat Robertson was now the author, and the writing has declined, the situations changed, and the problem suddenly solvable by the most ludicrous methods. That's Intervention. It starts out just fine, and then takes a startling, ridiculous turn that simply insults the reader.
|
|
If I hadn't read all of Robin Cook's other books, I would never read another one! This book is all over the place in the action. It paints Jack as a selfish, glory-seeking father who will do anything to avoid being around his sick son. I didn't have any problems putting this one down when I was tired! And the abrupt ending is like having a door slammed in your face.
Having said that, I will buy another book from Robin Cook. I used to scour bookstores to find all of his books because he was my very favorite author for many years. And I did stay up all night once because I couldn't put the darn book down!
|
|
The book definately had a very slow start....but if you stay with it, it really wasn't as bad as some of the reviews. I was blown away by the "twist" towards the end. I would recommend it. But again, a very slow start and hard to stay with, but worth it.
|
|
Having enjoyed Robin Cook's novels in the past, I was looking forward to reading "Intervention" but I would have to say that this is definitely not his best. It was very apparent that he is highly prejudiced against alternative medicine and the book quickly became bogged down in preachiness. I have been in the medical field myself for over 40 years, but am not so arrogant as to say that Western Medicine is the only answer. The plot regarding that particular aspect of the book just sort of fell apart all at once and then the rest of the story plot was unbelieveable. His hero, Jack, becomes an unlikeable person as he consistently leaves the care of their sick child to his wife and cowardly was seeks ways to distance himself. The final resolution of the main story was so contrived and ridiculous. Not a good read.
|
|
This was a very interesting storyline but I found it strange that the author had the protagonist start out exploring alternative medicine and pretty much abandoned that vein for the main plot. The protagonist seemed to be very against Eastern and holistic medicine but the fact is that these methods work and have been used for thousands for years. The main storyline was very interesting and I was intrigued by each character's specific agenda. The setting was fascinating and I was surprised by the ending. I do like series characters and I did like the book but I wish Cook had delved more into the issue he started out with. I also found some of the character's interactions with each other to be unreal and/or stilted. Overall, a decent read. I would also recommend Chromosome Six by the same author, as well as the books of Micheal Crichton, Patricia Cornwell, Sidney Sheldon and Tess Gerittsen.
|
|
I enjoyed reading the book, but expected the main subject to be about alternative medicine, which I was interested in reading about, but the subject was too generalized - Jack's obsession encompassing all of alternative medicine. A little unprofessional for a doctor, and silly when you consider how many more people die at the hands of conventional medicine. Considering his child was being treated for cancer and they were considering alternative medicine to treat him, the whole book could have been about just that, perhaps going into more specifics about how alternative medicine may have treated a cancer patient and whether it was credible or not.
Instead... the whole plot turned and changed the subject. (unless you consider the power of God to bless and heal people "alternative medicine.") I found most of the characters to be a bit shallow, predictable, and self-serving. The dialog was often stilted and contrived enough to make reading uncomfortable. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting enough to see it through to a predictable climax and a happy, but ineffectual ending.
|
|
now i agree about alternative medicine as a professional nurse[rn] for over 45 years [masters in nursing form teachers college/columbia university]
that alternative med is dangerous and so "junk sciencw'
forget about the search of bones on mary
assine concept and truely fiction like the da vanci code roabin your are not daniel brown
re: chiropractors yes as anatomy and physiology professor for allied health
they can be dangerous to say the least they need to stay within
their speciality of muscle skeltonal and stop being so called family medicine as robin well documents in his boo they are NOT physicians BUT
doctors of chiropractic
and not in the socalled medical model
but his comments how they market themselves and how they are very nice with opening to the patients ie appointments availability and listening to the patient needs vs the physcians which are the pits with so called bedside manner
as former university health system employee
where fraud in the operating rooms of university hospital is well documented
as i was told by a CEO
that suregons faculty who do not staff their surgical cases is not a quality issue hey a professor who teaches medical ethics[which is an play words] it is fraud and it is
ethics with a capital"E" and not a four letter word
this book is just a C- in my grading..
|
|
dissapointing compared to his other books which tried to give a broader view of subjects and not such a negative, subjective stand as he has towards alternative medicine in this book
|
|
I have read most of Robin Cook's novels because they always deal with such timely medical issues. In addition, the stories about Laurie and Jack add a continuity to his novels and we can see some character develpment and I do look forward to hearing more about them.
However, the story telling is often hit and miss. Intervention was MUCH better than his last work, Foreign Body. The plot had so much promise: alternative medicine tossed with a Vatican treasure hunt (ala Dan Brown) but his writing style is so rote. I often felt like I was reading a lecture, even when characters are speaking to each other. Do people really speak so professionally with each other (even when they are intimately involved like Jack & Laurie?).
In addition, I felt like the story was going somewhere and was suddenly brought to a close. There was so much more room for character and plot development but Mr. Cook just didn't bother. It was okay, but could have been much better.
|
|
Didn't really care for the religious plot of the book. I enjoyed the beginning when Jack was researching the death of a young woman. OK read, but not up to us usual medical thriller standard.
|
|
Cook at his best. He blends his forte of medicine with the Dan Brown territory of ancient religious dogma to create a great page-turner. The detail and research Cook incorporates into the story takes you deep into its twists and turns. Normally I can guess where a story's going, not here, it's a unique take on the battle between science and religion -- topped off with one of the most satisfying and unexpected endings I've read.
|
|
This book was horribly boring. Topic stupid and boring. Only interesting part was the info on the chiropracters and acupucture, so maybe 10 - 15 good pages.
|
Explore More Items
