Genesis (Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery Book 12)

Another medical mystery from Robin Cook. This time a few disappointments--1. As always, Cook's mysteries are great, actions believable, but his dialogues read stilted and awkward. Jack and Laurie's conversation about deeply emotional subjects could have been more realistic. 2. The medical points of genetics genealogy should have been explained simpler; they read like voodoo mystery. 3. For once, Cook gave us an interesting, complex character Aria. She is the most fun character, IMHO, and I was so keen to see her solve the mystery and become like another Laurie (who has become too subdued of late), but Cook disappoints us! (not giving away the story).

Too many deaths. It is a compelling story but I was sorry that so many highly educated and interesting characters had to die. Much better than his last book.

I hadn't read a Robin Cook novel in quite some time, I grabbed GENESIS right away; I love medical thrillers. Lucky for me that I was already familiar with the author because the prologue would have discouraged me from getting to chapter one. Basically, the prologue is the scientific description of human conception told in some of the most flowery, purple prose I have ever read. So if you already know about the birds and the bees, skip to chapter one. The rest of the book however is very well written and thankfully stylistically does not resemble those first pages.The setup is established very slowly and in great detail - like everything else in this laborious novel.There is all the domestic drama regarding the Montgomery-Stapleton family, hospital politics, Laurie's job as Chief Medical Examiner. Then there are the descriptions: crisp and precise and often seemingly never-ending; do we need four pages or so for a character to enter a restaurant and reach their table? Or pages and pages on buildings, a subway ride, a bicycle ride, and a couple of autopsies irrelevant to the plot, but still accompanied by lengthy lectures? The main storyline is buried under an extraordinary amount of unnecessary details, slowed down even further by repetitions of entire events and conversations.Then there's Dr. Aria Nichols, the most unappealing heroine I have ever read. Aria is obnoxious, rude, vulgar, unprofessional, unpleasant; she hates men, she is selfish, insensitive, and a charmless sociopath. She is supposedly extremely brilliant yet she's not the one who comes up with the DNA suggestion. Almost immediately upon meeting her, I wished for her swift and very painful demise. My hate for the loathsome Aria greatly surpassed anything else: the fate of the good guys became secondary, and I didn't even care about the uninteresting murderer, unless they obliged in offing Aria. Had Aria been remotely palatable, the book would have been way more enjoyable; not great, but decent enough; her presence ruins everything. Let's put it this way: Dr. Aria Nichols is no Lisbeth Salander or Jane Doe.GENESIS overflows with all sorts of information on a myriad of topics, always excruciatingly detailed, except for the computer game Minecraft; I wonder why. Since the number of pages in the book was already too high by half, why not add even more pointless filler! There were some interesting plot twists: one - well, two actually, because one would have made the book shorter, perish the thought one should come to the point relatively quickly! - which was a great shame as the sole bright light was extinguished; the other twist was totally unexpected and ever so thrilling but came too late.I identified the baddie almost the minute they were introduced, courtesy of the very unsubtle clues provided by the author. Had it not been so evident to the reader, it might have made the book slightly more compelling, because most of the characters - save one who should have seen the signs - couldn't possibly have guessed sooner than they did. The ending, unfortunately, was very predictable as well as underwhelming. In conclusion, if you're looking for an exciting medical thriller, look elsewhere, GENESIS is not it.

Robin Cook writes some amazing medical thrillers. I love how he builds the case little by little and keeps the tension going throughout. I had a couple guesses who the killer was pretty early on, and one of those guesses was correct. With a bit left in the book the killer was revealed to the reader and so it was quite fun through the rest of the book waiting to see how Jack (because it’s always Jack) figured out who it was. Seeing that Genesis is the 12th of 12 Laurie Montgomery/Jack Stapleton book, I must admit I was pretty sure he was going to off Laurie to end the series. I highly recommend this book to adults who enjoy medical thrillers.

Ordered as a gift. Item came in perfect shape and very quick!

I Have not read any Robin Cook novels, nor any medico-legal thrillers for a long time. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this new release. Drs. Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery are portrayed as vibrantly as when they first appeared. The world of the Medical Examiner is vividly detailed and Post Morten procedures are portrayed accurately (I worked my way through college as a “mortuary assistant “ as the job is titled in this series). The author dives deeply, as is his pattern, into the technology of the day, and produces a suggestion for a novel use for our current fascination with genetic genealogy in the solving of a mystery. His explanation of the technology involved is exemplary. No complaints here from a former medical technologist. The thriller aspect is not neglected here. The cases involved proceed at breakneck speed, and follow the serpentine plot twists typical of Robin Cook’s writing. The identity of the villain is well concealed until quite late in the novel. However, the writer plays fair with us readers, as in retrospect, the clues were all there for us to solve it ourselves The denouement of this story provides all the pulse pounding tension the reader could expect. In all this novel carries on the tradition begun many novels ago, it is a great read. I have a lot of catching up to do. Don’t miss this one

I love all of Robin Cook’s books and this was no exception. I like reading stories where the author uses characters from a past novel as it makes it seem more “real”. They only thing I could possibly criticize would be the use of so many words I had to look up or never heard before.

Robin always keeps your attention. It is informative medical mysteries. The storyline reads at a good pace. You feel you are free right there next to the characters.

I’ve read every book Robin Cook has written, after watching the film Coma as a kid and being totally enthralled (and freaked out!) by it. I back-tracked and read the older books, then excitedly read the new ones as they are published.Genesis does have its flaws. A little too formulaic, (and yes I know that most authors of Robin’s no. of years writing will have a loose “formula”) fairly predictable villain and ending and too like other books in the series.But the positives!The most interesting thing for me was actually the running thread and subtext. This book is an exploration of Gender, society’s expectations, it’s need to suppress an excess of those characteristics, or even remove any considered “unsuitable” to a particular gender.ADHD prescribing to children is explored and its link to later life drug abuse.A new character is introduced Dr Aria Nichols, who comes across as absolutely hateful tbh. Yet she has freakishly similar character and behaviour traits to series the “Hero” Jack Stapleton. I’ve always thought him to be hideously thoughtless and selfish, but along comes a female Jack and instantly I think “I hate her!,” However enlightened we think we are, we are all so programmed. Clever stuff

Good mystery medical drama but ending wound up too quickly. Conclusion was too reached too suddenly.

Interesting to see how a novelist interweaves the use of genetic genealogy into a murder mystery

Couldn’t put it down! Finished it off in 2 days! Haven’t read anything bad from Robin Cook yet.

This is the most boring book I've read. Cook constantly repeats the story until I wanted to toss the book across the room, how many times do you need to tell me the same information. If this is what Robin Cook is putting out I will think twice before I buy another of his books!