CRISIS starts out with two different doctors in different cities that are dealing with their patients. Having read previous Robin Cook novels, I immediately suspected the plot to unfold with an epidemic and dead bodies in both cities. What unfolds is a malpractice suit against one of the doctors. Robin Cook is known as the master of the medial thriller, but the majority of this book deals with a malpractice trial.

CRISIS is not your typical Robin Cook novel!

I have to wonder — have Robin Cook and John Grisham started working together?

A quick glance at the cover and reading the book will tell you that is not true. The book is not as fast-paced as some of his other books. This slow pace,  I think is partially due to the excessive dialogue portions that seem to be fake or forced. Also contributing to the slow pace is the courtroom scenes that are described in painful detail. I found myself scanning over many of the dialogue and courtroom pages to get to the next interesting part. Unlike his previous books, several of the characters in this book are classic stereotypes that lack depth or creativity.

There are some exciting chase scenes and some medical investigation scenes that briefly speed up the pace of the book.

Overall, the book did not have the “feel” of a Robin Cook novel. I think he should revert back to the medical thriller genre and leave the legal writing to Grisham.

Regular readers of Robin Cook may remember Dr. Jack Stapleton. He is back in CRISIS, but does play a slightly different role. He has a life-changing event in CRISIS that regular readers will want to read about.

Overall, CRISIS is not one of Robin Cook’s best novels. New readers of his work should not judge the rest of his work by this one and the faithful readers can only hope that this was only a temporary departure from his normal writing style.

Sorry, but I can only give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Tags: 3 STARS, fiction, medical thriller, Robin Cook