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THRILLER Loaded with medicine, mafia, money and more…RINI MUKKATH

Title: Cure

Author: Robin Cook

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Price: Rs. 299

With Cure, Robin Cook offers more medical discoveries, scandal and money. As always with Cook, the writing is a bit long-winded but once you get accustomed to his stilted style you can enjoy the plot, which starts in New York City, moves to Japan and back.
Big plans
The story revolves around medical discoveries and the marriage of science and business for profit. Ben Corey, an American businessman and scientist, plans to make his fortune by investing in IPS cells, a new version of stem cells. He plans to buy the patents from Satoshi Machita, a Japanese scientist who discovered them while working as a researcher in Kyoto University. However, Satoshi lives in Japan, and he has been fired by the university where all his research material is stored.

In an attempt to retrieve the valuable information and engage in intellectual property theft, Corey teams up with the Japanese mafia, the Yamaguchi, by promising them a stake in his U.S. ventures. A share in his IPS start-up becomes an attractive batter for breaking into the university, and stealing Satoshi’s lab books that contain his discovery. But not everything goes as planned because a rival mafia organisation is involved. as they have also invested in the original Japanese IPS start-up and on discovering that the patent is being transferred and they can kill Satoshi and get his lab books back.This is the third Robin Cook book I’ve read, and it does continue in his tradition of featuring New York City Office of the County Medical Examiner. While the book opens to a slow start with This one features Laurie Montgomery returning to work after her maternity leave and picks up pace gradually.

The autopsy results of the case that Laurie handles appears to be rather inconclusive, and while it seems like the victim’s been poisoned Laurie smells foul-play. She discovers many key associations to a large pharmaceutical company and several biomedical start-ups that deal with stem-cell research. Many discoveriesLaurie and her husband Jack Stapleton, who is also a medical examiner, are caught in a twisted trail of biomedical espionage. Their investigations lead them to everything from the Mafia and Japanese gangsters to drug companies involved in money laundering investments.

It was a long read, though the premise of the mafia being involved captured my interest. The sting is definitely towards the end, after Cook introduces a nice twist.

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