Rating: 
Summary: Didn't make it out of second gear.
Review: The most painfully slow book I've read in years. I don't think he made it out of first gear until about 3/4 the way through the book. With difficulty he finally shifted into second gear and by the end of the book was cruising at a not-so-exhilarating 30 miles an hour. The medical and scientific details are accurate and fairly well-written. The major subplots are "what's for dinner tonight," and "what will the plumber work on next." The dialogue is artificial and irritating. It reminds me of a dialogue from one of my third-grader's stories. Using words like "modicum" and "greasy spoon" I wonder if Mr. Cook could possibly have been born in the same century as the rest of us. I want my $7.00 back!
Rating: 
Summary: Filled with mistakes...
Review: This was one of the worst Robin Cook books that I had the displeasure of reading.Elizabeth Mills was supposedly hanged as a witch in the 1600s. Flash to modern times and we read how Kim Stewart and Edward Armstrong discover the coffin: Edward shined the light into the open end of the coffin. "We're in luck," he said. "The corpse has been mummified by the cold and the dryness. Even the winding sheet is intact." "I think we've done enough." Elizabeth said. But she might as well have been talking to the wind. Edward wasn't listening. To her horror she watched while he put the light down and reached into the coffin. "Edward! What are you doing?" The book is filled with several instances where the author confuses his characters, and has Elizabeth (who is dead) speaking when he obviously meant for Kim to be speaking...
These mistakes take away from the enjoyment of the book, as one begins to become very conscious of all of the author's errors...
Rating:
Summary: wouldn't let me do 0 stars...
Review: Robin Cook did a good job with her book about the Salem, Mass. witch claims and trials. She succeeds in tying the events of the 1600 witch claims with the greed of modern techology genius doctors together.
Kim Stewart learns that her aunt, Elizabeth Stewart was hanged as a witch 300+ years earlier. Kim's lover, Dr. Edward Armstrong thinks that he had the answer to why the young girls acted out in strange ways in 1679 which resulted in them being hanged as witches. He stated that the rye that was eaten at that time had molded and produce those strange hallcinagentic behavior in the Salem young girls. From that hypothesis he decided that he could use the mold and its sporos to develop a new drug for the 20th century to cure personality flaws. The story was driven by greed from the money to be had from the new drug/s and Dr. Armstrong's desire to be the doctor of the 20th century. The Dr. Jeykell and Mr. Hyde senerio plays out. As you can imagine, things get pretty scary. By the close, no new drug is developed because the scientists blow that chance.
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