I have always enjoyed Robin Cook and his ability to keep one engrossed as the plot thickens progressively. Unfortunately, for "Foreign Body", I was pretty much convinced of exactly what was going to happen long before it did. I continued through the book to see how things would develop but, as it turned out, there were no turns, no surprises. Hope his next one is more of a "Medical Thriller." Robin Cook always uses the English language beautifully in his descriptions, he is not simply a storyteller but a writer. Better plot and development next time, please.

Robin Cook is my favorite author of what I would call the Medical or Scientific sub-genre of mystery/thrillers. And Foreign Body was no disappointment.

Should have been listed as a tourism and culture of India instead of a medical thriller. Only a quarter of the book could have been considered as a story and not even a good one at that.

This book is an interesting "what if" scenario involving the phenomenon of medical tourism. Cook was thinking out-of-the-box for this one! This novel also gives the reader a fascinating look into the private hospitals, customs, and daily life in India.

This book follows the typical Robin Cook mold that's been prevalent in his last few books. Greedy person or persons A try to discredit medical institution B for their own financial gain by killing a bunch of people and trying to pin it on medical institution B..that may be a very boiled down version of Cook's formula, but you get the idea.

Even so, I found this book to be good for what it was. A medical thriller that read very quickly. Despite the familiarity with the plot, it moves along at a great pace.

I won't give up too much of the plot because that's been mentioned ad nauseum in other reviews and the book's jacket.

It would be nice to have some time off from Jack and Laurie though. I do enjoy reading the escapades of those two characters, but I wouldn't mind seeing stories of some other characters. Seems like alot of authors are doing that these days. Rollins with his Sigma Force novels, Preston and Child with Penderghast books. I know these are fan favorite characters but Cook's written great books that don't feature these two.

In any event, I don't think it was nearly as bad as alot of the other reviews I've skimmed over on here. It reads much quicker than its 420+ pages so it's worth a look for Robin Cook fans in my estimation.

Although not the most exciting medical thriller I've read, it wasn't as bad as all that. The story was predictable -- a female medical student(always beautiful and brilliant and in this case, flawed) happens upon a conspiracy and she enlists her friends Jack and Laurie to help her solve the puzzle and save the day. I found the topic of medical tourism quite interesting as I had not heard of it before. The description of India made me vow to stay on American soil and certainly to avoid considerations of traveling to have my next elective surgical procedure performed in that country! The dialog wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe it would be, and the story moved along at a fast pace. This is a quick read that doesn't require the mind to be engaged. Readers already know what has happened and why so it's a matter of watching as the cohort figure it out. Suspend any notions of realism as the characters endeavor to solve the mystery halfway around the world. Can't Jack and Laurie retire yet??? I'm ready for some new blood......

I have read every one of Robin Cook's book and for some time, he was my favorite author. I just don't know what to think. His last 4 or 5 novels have lacked what made him famous. Many authors recycle their characters, but the problem is that he keeps recycling the characters from his most recent books and these are just not his best work.

His stories used to keep you on the edge of your seat and you couldn't put the book down. His endings were always precise and left you feeling good. Many of his most recent books just leave you hanging. In "Foreign Object" the ending was just predictable.

All of his earlier books reached #1 and stayed on the charts for some time. His last few books have hardly made a dent on the charts. This tells you many of his loyal readers have lost hope. Get back to what made you a great author - indepth characters, thrilling plots, twists and turns, and an ending that leaves the writer satisfied.

Not one of Robin Cook's better ones, but still a readable medical thriller.

This one takes you to India and gives a good overview of the growing medical tourism business there. Dr. Jack Stapleton and Laurie are back in action though in slightly reduced roles.

The plot is more unbelievable than usual and coverage of the Indian landscape is weak and superficial. The crooks being able to brainwash Indian nurse trainees to kill patients in order to migrate to U.S is a very difficult theme to convince readers!

Read for yourself and see!

Once upon a time, there was this good doctor who wrote terrific medical thrillers. His books became very popular. He sold millions of copies and soon became a full time writer and a rich man.

For a long time is many fans enjoyed is work and each book was awaited with great anticipation.

Then suddenly one day, to his fans' great disappointment, he wrote a rather boring book. At first, his many admirers hoped it to be a one time occurence. But other boring books followed, all lacking the freshness and new ideas of his earlier works which had always kept his faithful audience captivated.

After a long row of disappointments, a bok set in India seemed promising and the fans once again held their hopes high and ran to the bookstores. The book was based upon an up to date healthcare matter in America, and raised questions of great importance.

But alas, in spite of a splendid idea and a great opportunity to turn the trend and get back to earlier greatness, the book was a flop and lots of disappointed fans simply gave up after a few chapters. Some even wondered whether the doctor had really written the book himself. Stilted language, repetitive dialogues, unrealistic plots and ideas. It all seemed rather hasty and in lack of good editing.

And so, numerous books ended up gathering dust in bookcases all over the world and some were even thrown in the garbage, while buyers regretted good money badly spent, and swore they would never again buy a book by their previously cherised idol.

So, if the good doctor has not decided to once again offer the quality of his heydays, it's goodbye and tanks for the memories. It was fun as long as it lasted.

I've been reading Robin Cook books for somewhere around 20 years and I continue to love them. I enjoyed this book immensely. Yes, he tends to recycle a couple of characters, but overall I enjoy the writing style because it's familiar. I always know what I'm getting with Cook - an entertaining medical thriller.

Most of the reviews have already said it--improbable plot, shallow characters, incredibly stupid villains, lousy dialogue. But what really annoyed me was the notion that just because Hindus believed in reincarnation they would be more open to committing murder and not worrying about it because, hey, you'll come back in the next life! Isn't murder considered a sin in that religion, too? Wouldn't that really mess up your karma? It seemed a really bad case of idiotic stereotyping. And it was completely improbable that Jennifer could forgive the woman who actually murdered her grandmother to the extent she would then sponsor her to come to the United States! Please! This was an incredibly bad book.

Robin Cook has certainly been one of my favorite authors along with Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter and the like. As far as medical thrillers are concerned he is probably the best writer out there at the moment and has been for many years now. The verdict in short - This effort doesn't do justice to many of his previous stellar works. What was interesting though, from my relatively unique perspective as a surgeon from India who subsequently went through surgical residency in NYC, was his focus on medical tourism and his overall grasp of India. I have to say that on both these counts, his portrayal has been very realistic. His acknowledgement that private hospitals in India matched up easily to their western counterparts is a fact well known to people in India, but a recognition from Robin Cook on the international stage is something else. In the same breath, he also manages to showcase reasonably accurately, the best and worst of India as a society, and as a country, which can be a paradox to most westerners. The storyline itself, I am afraid, isn't too complicated and its a safe bet to say that this certainly isn't one of the master's better efforts..

Robin Cook has done it again by keeping you on the edge of your seat. You want to keep reading it until the end. A true page turner.

Other reviewers have said it all about how incredibly bad this book is. But the worst part is that they tried to drum up "excitement" for the release by posting two minute vignettes of the prequel on the Web. For weeks, every day, there was a new episode to get you wrapped up in the recruitment of the Indian nurses.

I didn't know this until I got the book and was directed to the website. Since the book had been released at that point I was able to go back and view each episode leading up the the release.

They are horrible. If you think TV soap operas are poorly written, overacted, frequently bizarre, and boring - you haven't seen anything as bad as these vignettes. I lasted through four before wanting to gag and at that point had all ready figured out where the weeks of vignettes were heading and what the book was about.

In spite of that, I read the book just because I hoped I was wrong. Unfortunately, the book recapped everything in the vignettes (in about 2 paragraphs) and was even worse than the Web acting. What a total waste of time. I agree we should have negative stars for garbage like this.

If you are looking for anything plausible, in terms of characters or realism or action, avoid this stinker of a book.

Shaky, shaky, shaky. A really bad book. I don't think the good Dr. wrote it and wonder if he even read it.

The basic idea is actually very interesting and this could have been a real entertainer and illuminator, but this book just falls on its face.

Extremely disappointing - reads like a bad Nancy Drew. The whole plot is given away in the prologue - the rest is an unconvincing, simplistic plot with extremely boring characters. Either Cook has completely lost it or got someone in India to write it and didn't even bother to read it himself!

Once again, RC takes on what is a really hot topic for the moment, and then apparently doesn't have a clue what to do with it. A book about medical tourism has the potential to be a phenominal read...this was just stupid. The whole issue is never really explored. The entire book is nothing more than page after page after page after...of idiotic conversations between the characters. I read a lot of comments here about the dialogue being ridiculous...seriously, I just want to know if this is how RC talks when he is conversing with friends, etc. My opinion is that he wants his characters to be superhuman in their intelligence and abilities, and he's assuming that if they go around speaking as though coughing up a thesarus, that will make them so. And I realize that he has to take some liberties with reality, but the events in this book are so stupid that it's not fun to read. I finished it only because I am compulsive and just can't start a book and not finish it, but instead of being sad it was over, I was relieved to see the last page. He used to put out such great books....I think that the stories are all told and the well is dry. Just one more painful read.

I was incredibly disappointed in this book. I'm generally a fan of Robin Cook, and I have read almost every book he has written. I was expecting this book to be at least as good as the others. Boy was I wrong.

The plot was great, in my opinion, and the action did keep my attention for a while. However, the ending was a huge let down. It seemed obvious that Mr. Cook had no idea how to end the story, so he just threw something in at the end in order to wrap everything up a bit too quickly and too neatly.

Too add insult to injury, there were several punctuation and grammatical errors throughout the book. Simply poor writing and poor editing. I wish I hadn't wasted my money on this one.

In Foreign Body, 4th year medical student Jennifer Hernandez watches in horror as CNN reports on a "medical tourism" death in New Delhi, with the victim being Hernandez' grandmother. Hernandez interrupts her studies, dropping everything, and jets off to India to make the necessary funeral arrangements.

So far so good.

She is pressed, hard, to decide whether her grandmother would prefer cremation or embalming (for shipping to the US). As she ponders her loss, and her next step, she hears, again on CNN, that another "medical tourism" patient has died, in the same hospital. The hospital is adamantly against any autopsy, and the Indian judicial system discourages autopsies.

Suspicious, she delays her decision, and gets two forensic pathologists to drop everything and jet to New Delhi, along with a "boyfriend" physician with experience in India (who also drops everything).

In the meantime, the real culprits, a US-based team of marketing administrators and nurses, continue their plans to destroy India's medical tourism business by killing American patients seeking cheaper medical interventions in India (you learn this in the first couple of chapters, so this is not giving away any plot secrets).

Foreign Body doesn't pass the following tests: believability of plot, believability of characters, and believability of action (the kidnapping sequence is particularly unbelievable). My first Robin Cook novel was Toxin, and I listened to it while driving across the US. I've read his books ever since. However, Foreign Body is not one I can recommend.

Wow--what a disappointment. Bad writing meets unbelievable plot.

Judge the writing for yourself. But as to the plot. You might like this story line if 1) you think surgeons in the US have it so bad that one practice decides to commit serial murder to block patients from going to India; 2) young (beautiful, of course) Indian women want so badly to immigrate to the US that they willingly commit murder on behalf of the murderous US surgeons; 3) that following murder, the gang of wannabe immigrants sit around with their employer to discuss how it went; and 3) that CNN would air astonishing reports, based on anonymous sources, of--EGADS--a heart attack in an Indian hospital after routine surgery. OK, if you follow CNN, you might accept the latter, but don't spend even one evening with this medical waste product, when there are so many other fine novels out there.

Shocked by her beloved grandmother's untimely death a day after she travels to New Delhi to have affordable hip-replacement surgery, fourth-year UCLA medical student Jennifer Hernandez heads to India for answers and uncovers a series of unexplained deaths, a finding that forces her to turn for assistance to her medical examiner mentor, Dr. Montgomery. BT.
If this happens to be the first time someone has read a Robin Cook novel, they would be overall satisfied by the story. As mentioned by others, I've also found it contained dry dialogue and a cookie cutter plot. There's really not much else to be said that hasn't been said by most of the negative reviews (of which I mostly agree with).

Robin Cook didn't write this 436 page thriller for any other reason than to give his fans another great summer escape. Loved this book. It's a fast and simple read and a break from the typical N.E. locales. Love his books.

I've always enjoyed medical thrillers, and have read several of Robin Cooks books. Coma, some 30 years ago, being my absolute favorite. In Cooks latest medical thriller: Foreign Body, Cook's subject is medical tourism, the trend in which U.S. citizens seek to save costs on expensive surgery through treatment overseas. At the center of the drama is Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, whose grandmother has died in a New Delhi hospital following hip replacement surgery. Suspicious about the circumstances, Hernandez immediately flies to India to investigate. There she not only discovers a number of similar deaths of U.S. citizens but also runs into a desperate Indian medical industry struggling to block all publicity about the deaths and a huge American HMO that wants nothing more than the widest exposure of the apparent medical missteps in the Third World.

Implausible plot twists, (CNN learns of the patients deaths before the family does) unconvincing villains, silly dialogue and a convenient,quickly wrapped up ending make this book a less than perfect read. I still enjoyed the book , but it was just average in my opinion.

Although a little predictable, this was an entertaining and suspenseful summer read for me. Robin Cook always fleshes out his characters and this time brings back a couple from a previous book. I would certainly recommend it, for a kickback afternoon at the pool when you want something a little scary and fun from a first rate author!

I have long been a Robin Cook fan and when the library called and told me my reserve on this book was ready I looked forward to a nice week-end settling in and relaxing with a good read. Boy, was I disappointed! The topic itself is interesting and current - the wave of medical procedures going overseas due to the costs in the US. From there it goes waaaaaay downhill.

The writing is stilted and uninteresting. For example, when Neil first comes to India and talks to Jennifer I swear I was reading the first draft of a high school freshman writing class. I am no burning liberal (in fact, I am no liberal at all) and I have no Indian connections, but I found the drawing of the India people and the country itself to range from ludicrous to downright insulting. Not one of the characters was interesting (even though in some cases they were so in previous books). The plot itself limps along, with ludicrous twists and turns that make the Indian people look like smarmy villians in an old James Cagney film. I got 2/3 of the way through the book, hoping it would turn around to Robin's usual good-to-very-good writing, and then gave up. I could not make myself finish it.

Robin, take a little more time between books next time or look for some new characters. Please. You used to be so good - I'm sure the creative genius still thrives but not in this venture.

Maria Hernandez needs a hip replacement, Herbert Benfatti has to have a knee replaced and David Lucas wants his stomach stapled. All travel from the US to India as participants in what has become known as medical tourism.

With the cost of surgery marginally lower in India than in America, it seems like a no-brainer. Especially considering the surgeries are done in first-rate medical facilities by extremely qualified doctors, the families are put up in five-star hotels, and patients and loved ones are given every consideration. However, what appears to be a great deal soon turns into a nightmare. None of these patients expect to pay with their lives in order to save financially.

These three seemingly healthy people suddenly die one after another, all of apparent heart attacks. Is there a problem with the care they've received? Did they have underlying and undiagnosed heart problems no one was aware of? Or is there something more sinister going on here?

When Jennifer Hernandez, a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, learns of her grandmother's death via a CNN news report, she is shocked. She had no idea that the woman who raised her was even traveling to India for surgery, and intends to investigate this unexpected tragedy. A post-surgery heart attack in an individual who had a thorough cardiovascular checkup only months before makes no sense to this burgeoning doctor.

The fact that the representative from the Queen Victoria hospital is pressuring Jennifer for an immediate answer regarding either cremation or embalming also strikes her as odd. While she realizes that in India bodies are taken care of almost immediately after death, she does not appreciate being coerced into a decision. The pressure only adds to her sense that something is amiss in her grandmother's situation.

Once in India, Jennifer learns of two other patients who expired in much the same way as Maria, and the search for answers is on. Luckily, Jennifer is able to make contact with the surviving spouses of the other victims and encourage them to push for an autopsy much as she is doing. However, permission for an autopsy is rarely given in India, and no one seems inclined to help the three grieving women.

Luck is on Jennifer's side, though. Her close friend, Dr. Laurie Montgomery, and her husband, Jack Stapleton, are both medical examiners and have consented to travel to India in order to help Jennifer get to the bottom of why American medical patients are dropping like flies.

The problem is, Jennifer is becoming a major annoyance to some powerful people in India. With the higher-ups determined to stop her no matter what it takes, her life is in as precarious a balance as that of the dead patients. Will she be able to solve the mystery surrounding these deaths, or will she become just another foreign body?

As a fan of Robin Cook, I felt reasonably sure I would like FOREIGN BODY before I ever picked it up. I wasn't wrong. The topic of medical tourism is a timely one and raises questions of safety and standards of care outside the U.S. The character of Jennifer Hernandez is very likable, and her ability to gain answers and justice for all of the victims is inspiring. The non-stop action and format of the book make it one that you'll read quickly just to see what happens next.

--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor

Great story about what lengths "Big Medical Business" would go to, to discouratge Americans from going overseas for medical care. Lots of detail about modern-day India as a developing nation, and actually quite flattering re: the state of Indian medical care available for Westerners with more money than the average Indian. Cook brings back previous characters (Laurie, Jack) so the reader can catch up on their continuing relationship and personal lives as well as add to the plot. Enjoyable behind-the-scenes insight into the interaction between politicos, wealthy businessmen, and the law in a country where there is such a sharp divide between the old cultural ways and new technology--the Westernization effect the Internet has on traditional conservative countries has a major effect on the characters. I also enjoyed the "meanwhile, in New York/New Delhi" device to give a timeline to events.
Great plot and great research. But Cook's writing style has become more and more wooden over the years. Conversation is stilted; characters talk in the most unnatural ways that it is almost unbearable to read. If I had a big red stamp that said EXPOSITORY! and stamped every offending passage, I'd have run out of red ink before the end of the book. It finally became unreadable (in what universe to people TALK like that??) so I skimmed enough to get the gist of the story, which was fascinating.
This would have made a thrilling screenplay. I love Cook's ideas; if he would edit down the excessive conversations that do nothing to advance the story or develop the characters, I could go back to loving his books.

Which book by Robin Cook features an Intrepid Young Medical Student stumbling onto a nefarious scheme by Evil Big Corporate Medicine to cynically line their own pockets by sabotaging legitimate health care and murdering hapless patients, and whose Evil Deeds are only brought to a halt by the courageous investigation by the Medical Student, who braves overwhelming odds and mortal danger to see that Justice ultimately prevails?

Answer: All of them!

Cook is simply a One-Note-Johnny, who hasn't had an original idea since "Coma". This sorry book is no exception; a simple regurgitation of the same old story line, featuring some of the same old characters from previous books, going through the same old tired motions, against the same old villainous types. The only difference here is that the locale has been changed to India, the only fresh breeze of originality in the entire book.

I was so bored that last night I finally gave up on this waste of paper a little over halfway through at Chapter 23.

Further adding to the laugh factor this time, Cook's villainous cabal of murderers are so inept and incompetent that in their attempt to discredit "medical tourism" to India, they leak the news of each of the patients' deaths to CNN, which airs the stories immediately, even before the dead patients' next of kin are notified of the deaths, thereby ASSURING that they leave a trail of suspicion in their own wake.

These idjits were so incompetent it was laugh-out-loud absurd, like The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.

Good grief! Doesn't anyone at Putnam have the guts to tell Cook he's nothing more than a self-plagiarizing bore?

I'd give this minus stars if I possibly could. Save your money.

The story is fast-paced, the plot is superb and overall a enjoyable book to read...except that Robin Cook seems to be encashing upon the Xenophibia that masquerades as anti-Outsourcing these days.
He sure knows better than that.

This books rips the lid off the horrific medical scandals happening overseas today. With the high cost of operations soaring, uninsured health seekers opt for India and embark on "surgical tours," in order to save money on crucial operations. Robin Cook stirs the pot on this simmering yet back burner story and tells a compelling and compassionate tale about the terrible things that can happen to unsuspecting health seekers all alone in foreign land. Death and quick cremations as cover-ups, serve as a goose-pimple warning to those who are considering going under the knife in countries where gruesome outcomes are on the rise and in some cases, epidemic. Be warned.
Pam Ward, author
BAD GIRLS BURN SLOW: cremation, crime and the funeral business

At the Queen Victoria Hospital in New Delhi, India, nurse Veena Chandra enters the room of sixty-four year old American medical tourist Maria Hernandez, who came here for a hip replacement as the costs are much less than in New York including travel expense. Veena injects a poison killing the woman as part of a deal she made to keep her mom and sisters safe from her abusive father. Afterward, Veena visits Nurses International Chief Cal Morgan to tell him she did the deed, but the patient thanked her before dying. Veena shocks Cal by having sex with him; afterward saying she just wanted to prove her father wrong about someone knowing about her father's molestation secret and wanting her before she commits suicide.

UCLA medical student Jennifer Hernandez is at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when CNN reports the death of a Marisa Hernandez of Queens. She calls her malingering dad who says Maria is in India having a hip replacement. Later that day she confirms her beloved grandma died in India. Knowing her dad would use his bad back as an excuse; Jennifer travels to India to bring her beloved grandma home. However, there she begins to learn of other odd deaths of medical tourists; she calls her mentor New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery who along with her spouse Dr. Jack Stapleton come to New Delhi only to learn there is something evil going on at modern Queen Victoria Hospital and if they are not careful they will be the next to die.

This fast-paced medical thriller comes from the headlines as Americans going to India for medical procedures has become a major "tourist" industry. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action while also slapping at the system of high cost of non health care in America. Although why the Astoria sexagenarian had to be murdered is explained late leaving a gap for too long, Robin Cook provides a powerful look at the newest health trend; going overseas for operations and cures.

Harriet Klausner