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Book Summary and Reviews of Bellevue by Robin Cook

Bellevue by Robin Cook

Bellevue

A Medical Thriller

by Robin Cook

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Dec 2024, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the bestselling author and "master of the medical thriller" (The New York Times), Robin Cook, comes a new tale of suspense-horror about a first-year resident whose life-shattering visions reveal the truth behind some of the greatest medical advances in the history of medicine.

Twenty-three-year-old Michael "Mitt" Fuller starts his surgical residency with great anticipation at the nearly three-hundred-year-old, iconic Bellevue Hospital, following in the footsteps of four previous, celebrated Fuller generations. The pressure is on for this newly minted doctor, and to his advantage he's always had a secret sixth sense, a sensitivity to the nonphysical. But quickly one patient after another assigned to his care begin to die from mysterious causes. As he tries to juggle these inexplicable deaths with the demands of being a first-year resident, things rapidly spiral out of control.

Visions begin to plague Mitt—visions of a little girl in a bloodstained dress, bloodcurdling screams in the distance, and worse. As bodies mount and Mitt's stress level rises, he finds himself drawn to the monumental, abandoned Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital building, which to his astonishment has somehow defied the wrecking-ball and still stands a few doors north of the modern Bellevue Hospital high-rise. Forcing an unauthorized entry into this storied but foreboding structure, Mitt discovers he's more closely tied to the sins of the past than he ever thought possible.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] limp horror novel...Cook peppers the narrative with medical jargon most lay readers will have to look up and telegraphs what's behind the possibly supernatural phenomena, lessening the suspense. This falls flat." —Publishers Weekly

"[Bellevue] is more Gothic than Cook's usual fare, more horror-adjacent than most of his books... Cook's loyal fans will surely enjoy it." —Booklist

"Intriguing premise and spooky setting don't make up for lackluster storytelling." —Kirkus Reviews

"Robin Cook is at the top of his game. Bellevue is a nonstop thrill ride from the first page until the last.  A must read for anyone who loves a gripping medical thriller with a supernatural twist. The ending left me shook, and I'm still haunted days later!" —#1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden

This information about Bellevue was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Robin Cook Author Biography

Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word "medical" to the thriller genre, and thirty years after the publication of his breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created. Cook has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a succession of New York Times bestsellers, including Outbreak (1987), Mindbend (1988), Mutation (1989), Harmful Intent (1990), Vital Signs (1991), Blindsight (1992), Terminal (1993), Fatal Cure (1994), Acceptable Risk (1995), Contagion (1996), Chromosome 6 (1997) and Toxin (1998) and many others.

In each of his novels, Robin Cook strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice. To date, he has explored issues such as...

... Full Biography
Link to Robin Cook's Website

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