Seizure by Robin Cook

Seizure

Book

Seizure by Robin Cook ☻☺☺☺☺

Review by Sharon Miller

Setting: Modern-day Boston, Italy and the Bahamas

A scientist, Dr. Daniel Lowell and his much younger lover/partner, Dr. Stephanie D’Agnostio have patented a revolutionary, yet controversial new gene therapy treatment, HTSR, that has the possibilities of curing several diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Disease. Nevertheless, the future of their company is threatened by an overzealous but powerful politician, Ashley Butler, who will almost certainly succeed in passing a bill that will ban their procedure. In a cruel twist of fate, Butler is diagnosed with an accelerated form of Parkinson’s disease, and in hopes of saving his political career, he secretly arranges to be the guinea pig for Dr. Lowell’s treatment, in exchange for killing the bill in Congress. Due to the experimental nature of the treatment, the doctors must align themselves with the Wingate Clinic, a clinic in the Bahamas, despite the fact that it was forced to leave the U.S. due to its immoral and highly illegal practices.

In today’s day and age, the possibility of HTSR as a real treatment is definitely plausible and because Robin Cook was actually a doctor, his detailed descriptions of the medical procedures makes it all the more real. Nevertheless, that is pretty much where the plausibility of this story ends. Although it is easy to imagine that there are doctors who would be willing to partake in such immoral and illegal activities in order to further their own careers, it is hard to believe that they would continuously make such stupid decisions. Time and time again, the two doctors make such ridiculous choices that it is almost laughable. Their first bad decision takes place when they actually agree to treat Butler. However, it goes downhill from there. Next, they decide to stay in their hotel room, after they proved, without a doubt, that someone broke into it in order to steal the DNA sample. Then, after being attacked in the Bahamas, Dr. Lowell thinks it is the right thing to do to stay in their current residence as well. I will not even mention the unbelievably stupid, and irresponsible, mistakes they make during the actual treatment; for fear that I ruin the end for anyone who wants to read this book.

Nevertheless, the plot of the story and stupidity of the doctors, are not what destroy this novel. Cook fails miserably in creating a character that any reader could actually like, and because of that, it is impossible to find a hero/protagonist to cheer for. Every single character in the book, except maybe for Stephanie’s old and frail mother, participates in such disgustingly illegal and immoral activities that it is all but impossible to not hate every single one. Stephanie has a few shining moments where she questions the morality of what they are working on; nevertheless, she never acts on these fears, which makes her just as despicable as the rest of them. Ashley Butler is the ultimate hypocrite. The actions of the doctors at the Wingate Clinic dwarf the immorality of Daniel and Stephanie, when it is revealed that they are purposefully impregnating poor Bahamian women in order to harvest their embryos. Even the secondary characters, mainly Stephanie’s family, are members of the mob. These people are the moral dregs of society, and being privy to their lives is enough to make your stomach turn.

The ending of the book was just as bad. I literally exclaimed “That’s it?” when I got to the last page. Cook could have taken the moral high road here, and revealed the consequences of the characters actions, instead he got lazy and simply ended it, with an unrealistic explanation of what the future may hold.

Overall, the book remained somewhat interesting, and kept me vaguely intrigued. Nevertheless, without even the slightest connection to any of the characters, and an ending that left so many strings untied, I cannot help but wish I had the few hours of my life that I spent reading it, back.