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Book Summary and Reviews of Intervention by Robin Cook

Intervention by Robin Cook

Intervention

by Robin Cook

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  • Aug 2009, 448 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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It's been more than thirty years since New York City medical examiner Jack Stapleton's college graduation and almost as long since he'd been in touch with former classmates Shawn Doherty and Kevin Murray. Once a highly regarded ophthalmologist, Jack's career took a dramatic turn after a tragic accident that destroyed his family. But that, too, is very much in the past: Jack has remarried—to longtime colleague and fellow medical examiner Laurie Montgomery—and is the father of a young child. But his renegade, activist personality can't rest, and after performing a postmortem on a young college student who had recently been treated by a chiropractor, Jack decides to explore alternative medicine. What makes some people step outside the medical establishment to seek care from practitioners of Eastern philosophies and even faith healers?

Jack's classmate Shawn Doherty is now a renowned archeologist and biblical scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose taste for good wine and generally deteriorating health are taking a toll on his career. He has recently obtained permission for a final dig beneath Saint Peter's, and despite his long-standing grudge against the Catholic Church, begins his research - which eventually takes him to Jerusalem and Venice - only to make a startling discovery with ecclesiastical and medical implications. And when Kevin Murray, now Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, gets wind of Shawn's findings, he's desperate to keep them from the public. Kevin has strong political ambitions within the Church, but his association with Shawn threatens to undermine them. Kevin turns to his old friend Jack to help protect an explosive secret - one with the power to change lives forever.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[An] uneven medical thriller ... when the characters themselves comment on the events as something out of a horror movie or a book, suspension of disbelief becomes even more of a challenge." - Publishers Weekly

This information about Intervention 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.

Reader Reviews

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Chris H.

Thank you Dr. Cook for shedding more light on chiropractic stroke
This book not only is amazingly accurate but it is something that every American citizen should read. Dr. Cook talks about alternative medicine and more particularly chiropractic. Americans are so hung up on alternative practices lately that they seem to have forgotten that medical science has saved so many lives through the decades. I am not sure that alternative "medicine" can really say or prove that it has ever SAVED a life.

And people do not even know or realize that most alternative medicine is not government regulated .And with it comes many risks,,some very serious ones. Chiropractic is so deceiving.

Our Government has allowed chiropractors to use the title doctor. But they only have a doctorate of chiroprractic. Yet people go to them and rely on them thinking they are "real"doctors. Their education level is much lower than real medical doctors, students only need a 2.0-2.5 GPA to get into chiropractic schools,they do not have to struggle to get into chiropractic college .No equivalent to MCATS are required. Almost half of the licensed chiropractors in the U.S.practice chiropractic as a religious belief and they disavow the use of vaccinations and even anti-biotics and most drugs, even though these drugs have been proven to actually save people's lives.

Chiropractors do not think that people should be given them because of possible side-effects. But at least we are all aware of the side effects BEFORE we take something. Chiropractic manipulation has permanently disabled and people have died as a direct result of a chiropractic manpulation and chiropractors know that there is a serious risk of stroke within their own community. But because they are considered "alternative" they do not have to tell their patients that chiropractic manipulation is a risk factor for stroke.

Hopefully, Dr. Cook will stir things up so that legislators will begin to take notice that alternative medicine can endanger young people's lives and increase healthcare costs instead of helping to decrease them.


I recommend this book to anyone. Every American should read it, and even though it is presented as fiction, people will learn a great deal and maybe begin to question alternative medicine, and realize that just because it is labeled "alternative" it does in no way mean that it is safe and without significant, devastating risks.

Thank you Dr. Cook for writing Intervention.

And by the way, I have no ties to the medical community. In fact, I am a survivor of a chiropractic stroke and I have talked with hundreds and hundreds of victims, or their remaining family members over that last 5 years. Chiropractic stroke is a needless injury that has paralyzed and led to the death of so many. It has to stop. Chiropractors should be mandated by the gov't to at least have to inform their patients of the possibility of stroke with a chiropractic adjustment. Chiropractors have kept this secret for far too long. People need to be aware and Informed!

The following links have been added by BookBrowse to provide more information on this topic:

The World Chiropractic Alliance's position on stroke risk

Chiropractic Stroke Awareness Group

WebMD

M.G.PANTH

Faith and Alternate Medicine.
Initially, novel is slow moving with wavering subjects and discussions about alternate medicine. Bit slow. However some facts about religion, chiropractic doctors have summarized to novel to good end. I liked it.

People may believe alternate medicine or may not, but once I experienced with my father's illness a kind of massage treatment similar to Chiropractic treatment, when strangulation occurred for hernia problem and operation could not be done immediate. It served for temporary retreat and after that operation carried successfully. There is some thing strange in alternate medicine also.
Reasonably good novel to read.

J R Short

Hit job on chiropractic
Can;t figure if this guy was duped, a dope or payed by the AMA or the pharmaceutical industry to portray chiropractic as dangerous. I am a chiropractor. I pay $1200 a year for $3 million of insurance. A medical doctor I treat told me he pays $70,000 a year. Who is dangerous? There are literally thousands of studies showing the efficacy of chiropractic; most done by Phd's and or medical doctors. To say there is no science behind chiropractic is laughable.

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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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