Rating: 
Summary: Confusing
Review: Forensic pathologist Dr Laurie Montgomery investigates when a series of cocaine deaths has one thing in common - corneal transplants. So what do these have to do with the Italian-American ganglands of New York? To be honest, I don't know. My concentration lagged with the long length of the novel, and my reading in front of the telly. Cook's characterisation has improved, though. (B)
Rating:
Summary: three and one-half plus stars
Review: I enjoyed reading the story. The story or mystery, itself, was very interesting, but some of the characters could have been better developed. Laurie Montgomery is a forensic pathologist who has noticed that several people have come to the morgue who have O.D. but are not known drug users. Because of the similarities in their deaths, she thinks that there is some bad drugs on the streets that are lethal. She wants to warn the public but doesn't get any help from her boss and the police so she does some investigating on her own. Meanwhile, bodies are piling up in the morgue that look like mafia hits, but the police can't find any connection. I found the story interesting and if you want a good quick read this book should do very well. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: three and one-half plus stars
Review: I enjoyed reading the story. The story or mystery, itself, was very interesting, but some of the characters could have been better developed. Laurie Montgomery is a forensic pathologist who has noticed that several people have come to the morgue who have O.D. but are not known drug users. Because of the similarities in their deaths, she thinks that there is some bad drugs on the streets that are lethal. She wants to warn the public but doesn't get any help from her boss and the police so she does some investigating on her own. Meanwhile, bodies are piling up in the morgue that look like mafia hits, but the police can't find any connection. I found the story interesting and if you want a good quick read this book should do very well. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Suspencful
Review: I found Blindsight to be a little different than, the typical Robin Cook book, if you know what i mean. THis was interesting enough to make me want to ready what other pathological mysteries would Laurie Montgomery have to solve. I could follow her forever. Great read, keep one is suspence, and i couldnt put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: I couldn't connect with the characters
Review: I had a hard time accepting Laurie . . . Cook makes her seem very one-dimensional. Laurie has problems in her past and with her parents . . . Cook doesn't develop her beyond this point. This plot was too unrealistic and unnecessarily gruesome in parts . . . it's not his best book.
Rating:
Summary: Fast-moving predictability but refreshing read in bed
Review: I love these medical mystery novels of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton, something akin to John Christopher's natural-earthwide-disaster books in the 1950's. Yes, something starts out slow and small and spreads out viciously, yet one smart scientist, doctor, cop or forensic pathologist will catch on, alert the right people, barely escape his/her own death by the evil villians who've found out that he knows, and yeah! In the end, the bad guys will die, disappear, be arrested, or at least, get some nasty injuries. Yahoo! That's the way life should be.Robin Cook obviously writes quickly, easily, and throws in lots of clues for a person to grab at. One that was transparent: in the life of the pathologist, as she comes and goes to work, we hear about her nasty "old lady" (role out the stock characters barrel!) neighbor who's always spying on her, even telling her to go back and get her umbrella. I thought immediately, "Okay, here we go, Robin! This nosy snoop (never a young handsome man at home writing his novel, or a beautiful woman kept by her husband, or some such thing), yes, this old mean thing is going to be important in the plot somewhere...and probably to intervene when it gets violent/dangerous/hoodlum-ridden. Sure enough, I got that clue right! Also, a strange quirk of Cook's is lacing into the story all kinds of details on how our hero gets her breakfast, changes her clothes, combs her hair and other very indifferent details. In the lives of other characters, we assume that they did eat something, change their clothes sometimes and wash now and again, but we're not put through the paces with them. It's odd. I cannot see, as a writer, why Robin Cook is doing it. This plot about opthalmologists and organ donor victims is semi-predictable, just by reading the back of the paperback version. But a good read anyway! I like to nitpick for the heck of it. Certainly I should get on this or some other bandwagon and churn out a few predictable but good stories myself. Let's see, how about some archeologists in the San Francisco Bay Area who keep getting called to examine skulls and bones, found underground on sites for new housing projects? WHy are these projects then delayed for six months or more while the neighbors manage to veto the halfway house or ghetto slum/Section 8 planned housing out of their neighborhood? Why does one evil archeologist have at his home a whole basement full of assorted bones and skulls? Ah ha. Oops, I've given away most of the plot. But a good read it would be, eh? No, I'll stick to medical mysteries, not archeological mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Fast-moving predictability but refreshing read in bed
Review: I love these medical mystery novels of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton, something akin to John Christopher's natural-earthwide-disaster books in the 1950's. Yes, something starts out slow and small and spreads out viciously, yet one smart scientist, doctor, cop or forensic pathologist will catch on, alert the right people, barely escape his/her own death by the evil villians who've found out that he knows, and yeah! In the end, the bad guys will die, disappear, be arrested, or at least, get some nasty injuries. Yahoo! That's the way life should be. Robin Cook obviously writes quickly, easily, and throws in lots of clues for a person to grab at. One that was transparent: in the life of the pathologist, as she comes and goes to work, we hear about her nasty "old lady" (role out the stock characters barrel!) neighbor who's always spying on her, even telling her to go back and get her umbrella. I thought immediately, "Okay, here we go, Robin! This nosy snoop (never a young handsome man at home writing his novel, or a beautiful woman kept by her husband, or some such thing), yes, this old mean thing is going to be important in the plot somewhere...and probably to intervene when it gets violent/dangerous/hoodlum-ridden. Sure enough, I got that clue right! Also, a strange quirk of Cook's is lacing into the story all kinds of details on how our hero gets her breakfast, changes her clothes, combs her hair and other very indifferent details. In the lives of other characters, we assume that they did eat something, change their clothes sometimes and wash now and again, but we're not put through the paces with them. It's odd. I cannot see, as a writer, why Robin Cook is doing it. This plot about opthalmologists and organ donor victims is semi-predictable, just by reading the back of the paperback version. But a good read anyway! I like to nitpick for the heck of it. Certainly I should get on this or some other bandwagon and churn out a few predictable but good stories myself. Let's see, how about some archeologists in the San Francisco Bay Area who keep getting called to examine skulls and bones, found underground on sites for new housing projects? WHy are these projects then delayed for six months or more while the neighbors manage to veto the halfway house or ghetto slum/Section 8 planned housing out of their neighborhood? Why does one evil archeologist have at his home a whole basement full of assorted bones and skulls? Ah ha. Oops, I've given away most of the plot. But a good read it would be, eh? No, I'll stick to medical mysteries, not archeological mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: A good one-time read
Review: I think of Robin Cook novels as being "paperback novels" in that they are one-time reads (i.e., it's foolish to buy a hardback), because although great page turners, there is little depth once you're in on the "horrible secret conspiracy" (whatever it is). Also, like most "who dunits", in retrospect, the plots are usually unsatisfying because an inadequate foundation for them is lain early in the novel. (Caveat, the lack of foundation is almost essential to creating the suspense of such novels). Given these generalizations, Robin Cook is a master of the genre, and nearly all of his books can't be put down once you've got a good start. BLINDSIGHT is a departure from this structure, in that any intelligent reader is essentially in on the "horrible secret conspiracy" from the start. So, BLINDSIGHT isn't as suspenseful as most other Robin Cook novels. I found the plot complication of a competing crime family to only be confusing. Similarly, the "bad doctor" who apparently knows about the "horrible secret conspiracy" but simply keeps silent is very unconvincing. I'm still unclear on who the "really bad doctor" who gave the hoodlums the necessary medical traing was. And it is unsatisfying that neither "bad doctor" was punished.
Rating:
Summary: best of Cook's
Review: Of all of the books that I have read by Robin Cook, this has been my favorite. What made this stand out from the others, was that the plot was exposed slowly throughout most of the book. The one thing that I have not liked about Cook's books, is that the story is all exposed suddenly at the end by one of the characters. It just seems to me like a sloppy and unimaginative way of telling the story. I like this better since it is a little more gradual than the others. It's very suspenseful, and at times will get you wondering how it is happening.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but sooooooo predictable
Review: One of the reasons I enjoy mysteries so much is that I absolutely suck at figuring them out. I am always surprised at the end. Not here; I knew what was going on and figured out the ending in every detail by page 60. I might retitle this book, "Robin Cook Has a Mortgage Payment to Make." I can't think of any other reason why he would besmirch his reputation by publishing this piece of trash. I'll admit it kept me entertained, but I kept feeling ripped off because I knew what was going to happen. If you are looking for a beach book it's fine, but don't expect literary genius here. In fact, don't expect much and you'll get it.
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