Publishers Weekly
This accomplished if familiar medical thriller from bestseller Cook picks up the story of doctor-to-be Pia Grazdani after her horrific experiences in 2011’s Death Benefit, which included being abducted and witnessing a colleague, Will McKinley, being shot in the head. Pia decides to defer her New York City residency in favor of taking a position with Nano, a Boulder, Colo., company on the cutting edge of nanotechnology research. Nano’s development of “a microbivore-based antibacterial treatment” may help Will recover. To no reader’s surprise, Nano’s stereotypical evil businessman/scientist head, Zachary Berman, is prepared to jump across experimental ethics lines in pursuit of his own ends. Though Berman’s company finds a way to enable “a man to survive a massive, normally lethal medical crisis apparently unharmed,” Pia suspects that something more sinister is in the works. The concept of a young medico stumbling on a deadly conspiracy may have been fresh in 1977’s Coma, but more than three decades later, there isn’t much novelty left. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
Master of the medical thriller.”—The New York Times
“Cook can write up a storm and spin a taut tale…a master.”—Kirkus Reviews
Library Journal
The heroine of Death Benefit, Dr. Pia Grazdani, moves from New York City to Denver to work as a researcher for medical nanotechnology firm Nanobots. She is curious about the company’s seemingly endless funding and by chance soon finds that Nanobots uses human guinea pigs to test its latest discoveries. Though she’s soon in mortal danger, Pia still pursues the mystery to its darkest bottom. This suspense-filled and scientifically detailed thriller is given a splendid reading by George Guidall. His pacing, inflection, diction, and intonation are all a nearly flawless pairing of text and voice. His seemingly effortless performance almost immediately draws in the listener, giving each character a consistent and distinct voice and each narrative passage just the right pace and inflection.
Verdict Recommended for all public libraries.—Michael T. Fein, Central Virginia Community Coll., Lynchburg
(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
JANUARY 2013 - AudioFile
In Robin Cook’s new medical thriller, an emotionally drained medical student takes a year off to work as a researcher for Nano LLC, a Colorado research facility. On Pia’s arrival, she’s warned not to ask questions about the company’s campus, lavish funding, or state-of-the-art security. However, the company founder expects her to accept his unwanted advances. George Guidall’s versatile range and skill perfectly render the descriptions of cutting-edge nanotechnology, nanorobots, and their potential abuse. He believably portrays a diverse cast of characters, excelling with Pia, a gutsy and tenacious young woman who is determined to discover why fellow employees are suffering seizures. The possibility that the company is using its own employees as guinea pigs will keep listeners tuned in long after the ride home ends. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
A medical/scientific thriller from Cook (Vital Signs, 1991, etc.). Nanotechnology operates at the one-billionth of a meter level, and at such a scale, the tiniest details matter. In things medical, nanobots can swarm inside your body and fix all sorts of things--but then, as anyone who recalls the old Raquel Welch vehicle Fantastic Voyage will immediately twig, there are dangers attendant. Enter sexy Pia Grazdani, who last turned up in Cook's Death Benefit (2011) and who is now taking her medical education in new directions as a researcher at Nano LLC, a think-tank-ish lab out west. There are sequelae attendant from that last book, too, not least of them a classmate with a nasty head wound, which, given that antibiotics and "multiple surgical debridements" haven't done much good, has prompted Pia to seek teeny, tiny cures. Her new boss is both dreamy and creepy, and he's nothing but one big wolf whistle whenever he's around her. But that's not so often, since he's always jetting off somewhere or another to cut deals with sometimes shadowy figures--and by the end of the story, Cook has involved Mafiosi from Eastern Europe, Chinese Olympic officials, and various and sundry industrial espionage types. Can Pia discover what she needs to without stumbling into some trade secret and getting herself killed in the bargain? Will she wind up "in a drugged state" in some petro-tycoon's harem? Will Zachary Berman ever shake his hangover and become the good guy we know he can be? A by-the-numbers thriller with no surprises but with the usual satisfactions.
