About this ebook
The story of a deadly epidemic spread not merely by microbes but by sinister sabotage – a terrifying cautionary tale for the millennium as the health care giants collide.
After he loses first his Midwestern ophthalmology practice to a for-profit medical giant and then his family to a commuter airline tragedy, Dr. John Stapleton's life is transformed to ashes. Feeling less the golden boy than a jaded cynic, Stapleton retrains in forensic pathology and relocates to find an uneasy niche for himself in a city that suits his changed perspective: the cold, indifferent, concrete maze of New York.
Stapleton thinks he is past pain and past caring, but as a series of virulent and extremely lethal illnesses – capped by a particularly deadly outbreak of a rare strain of influenza – strikes the young, the old, and the innocent, his suspicions are aroused. When the apparent epicentres of these outbreaks are revealed to be hospitals and clinics controlled by the same for-profit giant that cannibalized his old ophthalmology practice, Stapleton fears he has stumbled upon a diabolic conspiracy of catastrophic proportions: Could the for-profit giant be engaged in the systematic elimination of its more costly subscribers?
Getting at the truth leads to Stapleton's unlikely pairing – both professionally and personally – with Terese Hagen, an art director at a hot Madison Avenue advertising firm. Together they discover that the real explanation behind the killer contagions is even more Machiavellian than could be imagined.
Contagion anticipates some of the uncharted consequences of managed health care, in an age when even the wariest consumer may be at risk. It is Robin Cook, the master of the medical thriller, at his unerring best.
Enjoy more medical mystery thrillers with Chromosome Six, Vector, and Pandemic.
After he loses first his Midwestern ophthalmology practice to a for-profit medical giant and then his family to a commuter airline tragedy, Dr. John Stapleton's life is transformed to ashes. Feeling less the golden boy than a jaded cynic, Stapleton retrains in forensic pathology and relocates to find an uneasy niche for himself in a city that suits his changed perspective: the cold, indifferent, concrete maze of New York.
Stapleton thinks he is past pain and past caring, but as a series of virulent and extremely lethal illnesses – capped by a particularly deadly outbreak of a rare strain of influenza – strikes the young, the old, and the innocent, his suspicions are aroused. When the apparent epicentres of these outbreaks are revealed to be hospitals and clinics controlled by the same for-profit giant that cannibalized his old ophthalmology practice, Stapleton fears he has stumbled upon a diabolic conspiracy of catastrophic proportions: Could the for-profit giant be engaged in the systematic elimination of its more costly subscribers?
Getting at the truth leads to Stapleton's unlikely pairing – both professionally and personally – with Terese Hagen, an art director at a hot Madison Avenue advertising firm. Together they discover that the real explanation behind the killer contagions is even more Machiavellian than could be imagined.
Contagion anticipates some of the uncharted consequences of managed health care, in an age when even the wariest consumer may be at risk. It is Robin Cook, the master of the medical thriller, at his unerring best.
Enjoy more medical mystery thrillers with Chromosome Six, Vector, and Pandemic.
Ratings and reviews
3.0
4 reviews
Brian White
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January 18, 2016
I've only just started the preview, and with so many characters to get my head around in the opening pages, my problem wasn't helped by eventually cottoning on to the fact that central character John had suddenly become 'Jack'. But the story-line has potential so I'll read to the end of the preview and decide if my attention has been grabbed enough to buy the book en toto. I only clicked 1 star in order to post this so don't dismiss the book on this premature comment; it just irritated me, that's all.
About the author
Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word ‘medical’ to the thriller genre and, decades after the publication of his breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created. Robin Cook has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce more than thirty international bestsellers, including Outbreak, Terminal and Contagion.
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