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Terminal
Sean Murphy é um jovem e promissor estagiário do famoso Forbes Cancer Center, especializado no tratamento de um tipo raro de cancro cerebral. Quando ocorre a morte de uma menina, vítima de meuloblastoma, Sean, que já vinha estranhando o elevado número de doentes que revelavam uma notável cura, desconfia de que se passa algo de errado e decide investigar. Ainda sem imagina que, ao tomar esta decisão, está a pôr em risco não só a sua carreira, mas também a sua própria vida, apercebe-se de que as suas investigações não são bem aceites por todos e de que está a ser vigiado pela atraente enfermeira Janet. Mesmo assim não desiste de procurar a verdade. Depois de dar conta de que todos os doentes curados desfrutam de uma boa condição económica, fica ainda a saber que é no próprio centro que os doentes contraem a doença.
367 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
132 people are currently reading
2423 people want to read
About the author
Robin Cook
182 books5,125 followersLibrarian Note: Not to be confused with British novelist Robin Cook a pseudonym of Robert William Arthur Cook.
Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine, biotechnology, and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for being the author who created the medical-thriller genre by combining medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. His books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List with several at #1. A number of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. Many were also featured in the Literary Guild. Many have been made into motion pictures.
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard that included general surgery and ophthalmology. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where he lives with his wife Jean. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to make the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical conundrums.
Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France while he was in medical school. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in the 60's. During his navy career he served on a nuclear submarine for a seventy-five day stay underwater where he wrote his first book! [1]
Cook was a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees, appointed to a six-year term by the President George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas and background for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, medical research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, drug research, drug pricing, specialty hospitals, stem cells, and organ transplantation.[3]
Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know much about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as that has enormous potential for treating disease and disability but touches up against the ethically problematic abortion issue."[4]
Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in being a doctor. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 35 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're n
Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine, biotechnology, and topics affecting public health.
He is best known for being the author who created the medical-thriller genre by combining medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. His books have been bestsellers on the "New York Times" Bestseller List with several at #1. A number of his books have also been featured in Reader's Digest. Many were also featured in the Literary Guild. Many have been made into motion pictures.
Cook is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard that included general surgery and ophthalmology. He divides his time between homes in Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts where he lives with his wife Jean. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce a succession of bestselling books. Cook's medical thrillers are designed, in part, to make the public aware of both the technological possibilities of modern medicine and the ensuing ethical conundrums.
Cook got a taste of the larger world when the Cousteau Society recruited him to run its blood - gas lab in the South of France while he was in medical school. Intrigued by diving, he later called on a connection he made through Jacques Cousteau to become an aquanaut with the US Navy Sealab when he was drafted in the 60's. During his navy career he served on a nuclear submarine for a seventy-five day stay underwater where he wrote his first book! [1]
Cook was a private member of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Board of Trustees, appointed to a six-year term by the President George W. Bush.[2]
[edit] Doctor / Novelist
Dr. Cook's profession as a doctor has provided him with ideas and background for many of his novels. In each of his novels, he strives to write about the issues at the forefront of current medical practice.
To date, he has explored issues such as organ donation, genetic engineering,fertility treatment, medical research funding, managed care, medical malpractice, drug research, drug pricing, specialty hospitals, stem cells, and organ transplantation.[3]
Dr. Cook has been remarked to have an uncanny ability to anticipate national controversy. In an interview with Dr.Cook, Stephen McDonald talked to him about his novel Shock; Cook admits the timing of Shock was fortuitous. "I suppose that you could say that it's the most like Coma in that it deals with an issue that everybody seems to be concerned about," he says, "I wrote this book to address the stem cell issue, which the public really doesn't know much about. Besides entertaining readers, my main goal is to get people interested in some of these issues, because it's the public that ultimately really should decide which way we ought to go in something as that has enormous potential for treating disease and disability but touches up against the ethically problematic abortion issue."[4]
Keeping his lab coat handy helps him turn our fear of doctors into bestsellers. "I joke that if my books stop selling, I can always fall back on brain surgery," he says. "But I am still very interested in being a doctor. If I had to do it over again, I would still study medicine. I think of myself more as a doctor who writes, rather than a writer who happens to be a doctor." After 35 books,he has come up with a diagnosis to explain why his medical thrillers remain so popular. "The main reason is, we all realize we are at risk. We're all going to be patients sometime," he says. "You can write about great white sharks or haunted houses, and you can say I'm not going into the ocean or I'm not going in haunted houses, but you can't say you're n
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 176 reviews
September 14, 2021
Read and enjoyed a medical thriller after ages. I need to read more medical thrillers so feel free to suggest me some in the comments below.
RTC
RTC
July 15, 2016
I have read several books by Robin Cook and have thoroughly enjoyed them but Terminal was a total disappointment. It starts out ok, but goes downhill once it gets going. The concept behind the plot was good, and had much potential for being a masterpiece but this was shoddy and unbelievable. His two main characters, Sean Murphy and Janet Reardon were unrealistic. No medical student could possibly possess the knowledge he did. Janet is from a snobby Boston family and received a degree from Wellesley in English Literature yet suddenly she's a nurse. Her background is not relevant to the story.
In the beginning of the story, Janet's personality was strong and overbearing but as the plot unfolded she became passive, almost submissive. A subplot featured Tom Widdicom, the maniacal serial killer. I feel that this had no relevance to the story and that was demonstrated by the abrupt termination halfway through the story. The Japanese company's investment in the Forbes Cancer Clinic was another subplot that never did tie in well with the plot.
There were many inconsistencies throughout the book and my final question is, how did Sean get through an airport and board a plane with a gun in his pocket? :P
In the beginning of the story, Janet's personality was strong and overbearing but as the plot unfolded she became passive, almost submissive. A subplot featured Tom Widdicom, the maniacal serial killer. I feel that this had no relevance to the story and that was demonstrated by the abrupt termination halfway through the story. The Japanese company's investment in the Forbes Cancer Clinic was another subplot that never did tie in well with the plot.
There were many inconsistencies throughout the book and my final question is, how did Sean get through an airport and board a plane with a gun in his pocket? :P
June 10, 2020
Generally Robin Cook books are a thrill ride which even a lay person can understand real well. But this one just doesn't seem to gel with the reader. Too many medical terminologies make you want to keep the book aside. Since these jargons mostly appear only in the last 100 pages, you want to complete this for the climax. There is also a serial killer on the loose. This does not have a connection to the main plot.
The plot is straightforward. Terminally ill cancer patients with a particular type of cancer are getting cured at Forbes Research Centre. Sean Murphy, a brilliant post gradate student at Boston wants to work at Forbes to study their treatment protocol in treating the cancer. However, something fishy is going on and Sean gets involved.
An average run-of-the-mill thriller.
The plot is straightforward. Terminally ill cancer patients with a particular type of cancer are getting cured at Forbes Research Centre. Sean Murphy, a brilliant post gradate student at Boston wants to work at Forbes to study their treatment protocol in treating the cancer. However, something fishy is going on and Sean gets involved.
An average run-of-the-mill thriller.
January 24, 2026
Mission 2026: Binge reviewing all previous Reads, I was too slothful to review back when I read them.
Reading Robin Cook’s 'Terminal' in 2020 felt like stepping into a time capsule of medical paranoia, techno-optimism, and Cold War–era anxiety repackaged as a clinical thriller. Cook, often credited with popularising the medical thriller as a genre, writes with the confidence of a physician who believes that science is both our greatest hope and our most dangerous toy.
'Terminal' is not his most famous novel, but it is a revealing one — pulpy, procedural, and obsessed with the thin line between innovation and catastrophe.
At its core, 'Terminal' revolves around the ethical and biological risks of medical experimentation. The plot follows doctors, researchers, and patients caught in a web of ambition, secrecy, and unintended consequences. Cook constructs his narrative around the idea that hospitals, often imagined as places of healing, can become sites of profound danger when systems fail or when human hubris overrides caution.
The novel’s pacing is brisk, almost surgical. Chapters are short, scenes clipped, and tension is generated through escalation rather than psychological depth. Cook understands suspense as accumulation: small irregularities pile up until they form an undeniable pattern of threat. In this sense, 'Terminal' reads less like a traditional novel and more like a case file slowly revealing its worst implications.
What gives the book its distinctive flavour is Cook’s insider knowledge. Medical terminology, hospital hierarchies, and research protocols are rendered with authority. This lends the story plausibility, even when the plot veers into sensational territory. As a reader, you are constantly reminded that while the specific events may be fictional, the systems enabling them are real.
Reading it now, the book’s anxieties feel both dated and prophetic. Cook’s fears are rooted in an era when biotechnology was advancing rapidly but without the layers of regulation and public scrutiny that exist today. The novel worries about experimental treatments, biohazards, and institutional cover-ups — themes that resonate strongly in a post-pandemic world. Yet the science itself, described with 1970s and 1980s assumptions, sometimes feels quaint.
The ethical framework of 'Terminal' is relatively straightforward. There are good doctors and bad administrators, noble intentions and corrupt ambitions. Cook does not traffic in moral ambiguity; he prefers clear lines and high stakes. This simplicity makes the book accessible but limits its depth. Characters often function as vehicles for ideas rather than fully realised individuals.
The protagonists are competent, driven, and ethically awake, while antagonists are defined by greed, arrogance, or ideological blindness. This moral clarity mirrors Cook’s worldview: science must be guided by conscience, and when it is not, disaster follows. The message is earnest, even didactic, but rarely subtle.
What struck me most was how much the novel relies on trust — and betrayal of trust — as its emotional engine. Patients trust doctors. Doctors trust institutions. Institutions trust that secrecy will protect them. Each layer of trust becomes a potential fault line. When one fails, the collapse ripples outward. In this sense, 'Terminal' is less about disease than about systemic vulnerability.
Stylistically, Cook’s prose is functional rather than lyrical. He writes to be understood, not admired. Descriptions are precise, dialogue is serviceable, and exposition is integrated into action. This utilitarian style suits the genre but leaves little room for reflection. The book moves too quickly to linger on consequences beyond the immediate crisis.
From a contemporary perspective, the novel’s gender dynamics and professional hierarchies feel dated. Authority figures are overwhelmingly male, while women often occupy supportive or endangered roles. These choices reflect the period more than the author’s malice, but they do affect how the book reads today.
Despite these limitations, 'Terminal' succeeds on its own terms. It is a thriller that understands its audience and delivers what it promises: tension, revelation, and resolution. The pleasure lies not in surprise — the broad contours of the plot are predictable — but in process. Watching systems fail under pressure is the novel’s central spectacle.
In the context of my 2020 reading list, 'Terminal' stood out as a reminder of how genre fiction absorbs cultural fears.
Where nonfiction interrogates policy and ethics directly, Cook dramatizes them through crisis. His warnings are not footnoted; they are embodied in collapsing bodies and institutional panic.
The book also invites reflection on how medical thrillers shape public perception of science. By framing innovation as inherently dangerous, novels like 'Terminal' contribute to skepticism and fear. At the same time, they force uncomfortable questions about oversight, accountability, and the cost of progress. This tension remains unresolved, both in the book and in real life.
'Terminal' is not a profound novel, nor does it aspire to be. Its value lies in its ability to translate abstract ethical debates into visceral narrative. It captures a moment when medicine was beginning to feel too powerful for its own good, and when trust in institutions was already fraying.
Reading it decades later, the novel feels less like a warning and more like a snapshot — a record of how one era imagined its future risks. Some of those fears have faded; others have intensified. What remains is the unsettling realisation that the systems meant to save us are often the same ones that can fail us most spectacularly.
Highly recommended.
Reading Robin Cook’s 'Terminal' in 2020 felt like stepping into a time capsule of medical paranoia, techno-optimism, and Cold War–era anxiety repackaged as a clinical thriller. Cook, often credited with popularising the medical thriller as a genre, writes with the confidence of a physician who believes that science is both our greatest hope and our most dangerous toy.
'Terminal' is not his most famous novel, but it is a revealing one — pulpy, procedural, and obsessed with the thin line between innovation and catastrophe.
At its core, 'Terminal' revolves around the ethical and biological risks of medical experimentation. The plot follows doctors, researchers, and patients caught in a web of ambition, secrecy, and unintended consequences. Cook constructs his narrative around the idea that hospitals, often imagined as places of healing, can become sites of profound danger when systems fail or when human hubris overrides caution.
The novel’s pacing is brisk, almost surgical. Chapters are short, scenes clipped, and tension is generated through escalation rather than psychological depth. Cook understands suspense as accumulation: small irregularities pile up until they form an undeniable pattern of threat. In this sense, 'Terminal' reads less like a traditional novel and more like a case file slowly revealing its worst implications.
What gives the book its distinctive flavour is Cook’s insider knowledge. Medical terminology, hospital hierarchies, and research protocols are rendered with authority. This lends the story plausibility, even when the plot veers into sensational territory. As a reader, you are constantly reminded that while the specific events may be fictional, the systems enabling them are real.
Reading it now, the book’s anxieties feel both dated and prophetic. Cook’s fears are rooted in an era when biotechnology was advancing rapidly but without the layers of regulation and public scrutiny that exist today. The novel worries about experimental treatments, biohazards, and institutional cover-ups — themes that resonate strongly in a post-pandemic world. Yet the science itself, described with 1970s and 1980s assumptions, sometimes feels quaint.
The ethical framework of 'Terminal' is relatively straightforward. There are good doctors and bad administrators, noble intentions and corrupt ambitions. Cook does not traffic in moral ambiguity; he prefers clear lines and high stakes. This simplicity makes the book accessible but limits its depth. Characters often function as vehicles for ideas rather than fully realised individuals.
The protagonists are competent, driven, and ethically awake, while antagonists are defined by greed, arrogance, or ideological blindness. This moral clarity mirrors Cook’s worldview: science must be guided by conscience, and when it is not, disaster follows. The message is earnest, even didactic, but rarely subtle.
What struck me most was how much the novel relies on trust — and betrayal of trust — as its emotional engine. Patients trust doctors. Doctors trust institutions. Institutions trust that secrecy will protect them. Each layer of trust becomes a potential fault line. When one fails, the collapse ripples outward. In this sense, 'Terminal' is less about disease than about systemic vulnerability.
Stylistically, Cook’s prose is functional rather than lyrical. He writes to be understood, not admired. Descriptions are precise, dialogue is serviceable, and exposition is integrated into action. This utilitarian style suits the genre but leaves little room for reflection. The book moves too quickly to linger on consequences beyond the immediate crisis.
From a contemporary perspective, the novel’s gender dynamics and professional hierarchies feel dated. Authority figures are overwhelmingly male, while women often occupy supportive or endangered roles. These choices reflect the period more than the author’s malice, but they do affect how the book reads today.
Despite these limitations, 'Terminal' succeeds on its own terms. It is a thriller that understands its audience and delivers what it promises: tension, revelation, and resolution. The pleasure lies not in surprise — the broad contours of the plot are predictable — but in process. Watching systems fail under pressure is the novel’s central spectacle.
In the context of my 2020 reading list, 'Terminal' stood out as a reminder of how genre fiction absorbs cultural fears.
Where nonfiction interrogates policy and ethics directly, Cook dramatizes them through crisis. His warnings are not footnoted; they are embodied in collapsing bodies and institutional panic.
The book also invites reflection on how medical thrillers shape public perception of science. By framing innovation as inherently dangerous, novels like 'Terminal' contribute to skepticism and fear. At the same time, they force uncomfortable questions about oversight, accountability, and the cost of progress. This tension remains unresolved, both in the book and in real life.
'Terminal' is not a profound novel, nor does it aspire to be. Its value lies in its ability to translate abstract ethical debates into visceral narrative. It captures a moment when medicine was beginning to feel too powerful for its own good, and when trust in institutions was already fraying.
Reading it decades later, the novel feels less like a warning and more like a snapshot — a record of how one era imagined its future risks. Some of those fears have faded; others have intensified. What remains is the unsettling realisation that the systems meant to save us are often the same ones that can fail us most spectacularly.
Highly recommended.
July 12, 2014
This is a lousy book. Some Robin Cook novels are decent thrill rides with a bit of medical horror. Others are just outright bad, with paper thin characters doing incredibly stupid things for incredibly stupid reasons. This is one of the bad ones. Much just doesn't make any sense, and the main character is like a parody of a driven medical researcher. There are red herrings everywhere that are obviously red herrings because they pop up and then disappear. There is even a serial killer who is introduced, and then pretty much dropped from the story. And yet I read this all the way through to the end. I don't know why.
January 28, 2019
Although it got off to a slow start, 'Terminal' ended up being a pretty good book. Harvard med student Brian Murphy takes advantage of an opportunity to join the Forbes Cancer Center in Miami to do a research externship on medullablastoma, a rare but incurable form of brain cancer that he's seen in two recent patients while at Harvard. Particularly intriguing about Forbes is that they have a 100% cure rate for this cancer in their trials, and Murphy wants to be part of getting that cure out into the medical community as a whole as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the bigwigs at Forbes instead assign Murphy to their crystallization research based on work he did as an undergrad, work that he was very good at, but no longer holds his interest since discovering the potential of immunotherapy for treating cancer.
What fascinated me about this book is that it was published in 1993, yet it's only in the last 5 or so years that I've heard immunotherapy mentioned as the current focus of cancer treatment. I know when my mom faced a terminal diagnosis of her own 7 years ago, none of her doctors presented that as an option, even for a clinical trial. Can't help but wonder if maybe it would have saved her, or at least given her some hope to keep fighting, because once it became clear the routine protocol chemo and radiation were no longer keeping the tumors at bay, they pretty much sent her home to die, denying her all but one of the medications that were at least slowing things down and maintaining her quality of live. Therefore, was Robin Cook really ahead of his time when writing this book, or is there some reason that 25 years later, we're just now getting to where the fictional Forbes Institute was in terms of cancer treatment (i.e. politics and the talk of Big Pharma not wanting a cure for cancer that would kill their profits on the chemo drugs)?
I'm glad I didn't read the book before now, not only because of the questions I have about the timetable on immunotherapy as a treatment option, but because I have a much better scientific understanding of the labwork Murphy did in the book thanks to studying a whole lot of Immunology for my certification exam at work this past autumn. Otherwise, I would have read about cytokines and papain and molecular probes and it would have all gone over my head, as I imagine it does for most readers, but this newfound understanding really did improve my opinion of the book.
I don't recall if Murphy shows up again in any of Cook's later works, but he and his girlfriend, Janet Reardon definitely have the potential to become regulars, and I'll have to check out the books I've not read to see if there's another one that I should read soon while 'Terminal' is fresh in my mind.
What fascinated me about this book is that it was published in 1993, yet it's only in the last 5 or so years that I've heard immunotherapy mentioned as the current focus of cancer treatment. I know when my mom faced a terminal diagnosis of her own 7 years ago, none of her doctors presented that as an option, even for a clinical trial. Can't help but wonder if maybe it would have saved her, or at least given her some hope to keep fighting, because once it became clear the routine protocol chemo and radiation were no longer keeping the tumors at bay, they pretty much sent her home to die, denying her all but one of the medications that were at least slowing things down and maintaining her quality of live. Therefore, was Robin Cook really ahead of his time when writing this book, or is there some reason that 25 years later, we're just now getting to where the fictional Forbes Institute was in terms of cancer treatment (i.e. politics and the talk of Big Pharma not wanting a cure for cancer that would kill their profits on the chemo drugs)?
I'm glad I didn't read the book before now, not only because of the questions I have about the timetable on immunotherapy as a treatment option, but because I have a much better scientific understanding of the labwork Murphy did in the book thanks to studying a whole lot of Immunology for my certification exam at work this past autumn. Otherwise, I would have read about cytokines and papain and molecular probes and it would have all gone over my head, as I imagine it does for most readers, but this newfound understanding really did improve my opinion of the book.
I don't recall if Murphy shows up again in any of Cook's later works, but he and his girlfriend, Janet Reardon definitely have the potential to become regulars, and I'll have to check out the books I've not read to see if there's another one that I should read soon while 'Terminal' is fresh in my mind.
September 15, 2020
I read this book after having seen the movie and sadly I was disappointed in the book. The book was mired in medical jargon and rather long winded. While I have never been what you would call a big Robin Cook reader I have enjoyed some of Robin's books. This one just failed to meet the grade for me.
February 6, 2017
My trip down to memory lane is not as good as I expected. I read Cook in the italian translation when I was young and I'm re-reading it in English now, especially during holidays or when I need a very light reading, but I'm noticing more and more that my attitude towards these all-american heroes has changed. Why on earth should a person take hostages at gunpoint to prove a point, even if it is the right one? What's wrong with going to the police? There's practically no medicine in this novel, only the ego of a sturdy irishman in the possession of his rich girlfriend's credit card.
April 16, 2016
This was one of the hardest books that I have read; I just almost didn't even finish it. It is full of medical terms, even though I knew Robin Cook wrote mostly in the medical field. I have read a couple of his books in the past, but this one just didn't impress me.
October 8, 2025
What an absolute scream! I’m obsessed. Somehow Robin Cook manages to tie everything neatly together with the ridiculous plot of Terminal. Also, I absolutely LOVE how this book was designed to be airport fiction! The name is Terminal, and on the back the first endorsement uses both the words runaway (runway) and fly. Everything about this book is genius. It would’ve made a great 80s movie starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. I 100% endorse this book.
January 3, 2020
The book was quite engaging for the most parts but this could very well have been cut-short to at least 60% of the original content which would have made it much more thrilling. Tom Widdicomb part on the whole could have been ignored as it never lead anywhere, it was like a filler like we see in movies that does not have remote significance to the main plot.
April 25, 2023
I picked up "Terminal" at a library bag sale thanks in part to the cover design. I felt as though in the beginning chapters, the author had a list of SAT words that had to be used which threw off the story telling flow. The whole affair got wrapped up too quickly for me. I absolutely hate how any woman who weighed over 180lbs was described as a grotesque monster - yikes and cringe.
May 29, 2025
J'avais déjà essayé un Cook, que j'avais DNF car scientifiquement trop précis (sans que ça serve l'histoire). J'ai terminé celui-ci, non sans mal. Les personnages sont exaspérants, en plus d'être incohérent (clairement, Janet est la pour faire nunuche et boniche). Le scénario est hautement improbable et le dénouement, bien que surprenant, est expédié en 10 pages. C'était laborieux comme lecture.
May 21, 2025
Lectura dinámica y fluida que te sumerge de lleno en una trama médica que no está exenta de misterio.
En cuanto a la jerga médica, hay por momentos que te sientes un poco perdido, ya que es vocabulario complejo, pero no afecta al hilo de la historia.
En cuanto a la jerga médica, hay por momentos que te sientes un poco perdido, ya que es vocabulario complejo, pero no afecta al hilo de la historia.
July 23, 2021
terrible a 300 niveles, increíble en el mal sentido, excesivamente científico sin sentido, machista, clasista...
October 16, 2018
Terminal, by Robin Cook, is a medical mystery about a man named Sean Murphy. Sean Murphy is a young medical student studying cancer biology, and he learns about a Florida based cancer treatment center with 100% success rate for a certain type of tumor. He takes an internship and moves to Florida with his girlfriend, Janet Reardon, to try and unravel the mystery of their treatment. While in Florida, he is barraged on every side by various groups of people. All of these groups merge together around Sean in an explosive climax.
The author uses many text devices to help build suspense and mystery throughout the novel. One way he achieves this is by keeping the history of Sean Murphy a secret, and slowly revealing bits and pieces along the way. The perspective is from an all knowing viewpoint, and this allows the reader to know things the character doesn't. This is especially suspenseful at times, because you know the character is walking into a dangerous situation, and it hurts to watch them make stupid decisions. The author keeps the thoughts of the characters secret in many cases, and it makes the reader guess and wonder as to what they’re going to do. The author also creates a few side plots that converge at separate times into the main plot in mini climaxes. Overall, the author did a great job of building mystery and suspense.
I enjoyed this novel. It was a little slow going at first, and it took me a bit to start to enjoy it, but once I got into it I really liked it. I especially enjoyed the last quarter or so of the book, when sean is in a certain situation that I can’t share here due to spoilers. I sort of liked how the author paced the novel slowly for the first half or more, and then really upped the action afterwards. It helped to build suspense, but it also made for a reallllly long exposition, and a relatively boring rising action. Additionally, the main character was a burglar as a teenager, and is extremely overconfident. However, he never seems to fail and knows how to do virtually everything, even if it makes no logical sense. I didn’t like those few aspect of the book much. Regardless, Terminal, by Robin Cook, was a very good read that I would recommend to a friend.
The author uses many text devices to help build suspense and mystery throughout the novel. One way he achieves this is by keeping the history of Sean Murphy a secret, and slowly revealing bits and pieces along the way. The perspective is from an all knowing viewpoint, and this allows the reader to know things the character doesn't. This is especially suspenseful at times, because you know the character is walking into a dangerous situation, and it hurts to watch them make stupid decisions. The author keeps the thoughts of the characters secret in many cases, and it makes the reader guess and wonder as to what they’re going to do. The author also creates a few side plots that converge at separate times into the main plot in mini climaxes. Overall, the author did a great job of building mystery and suspense.
I enjoyed this novel. It was a little slow going at first, and it took me a bit to start to enjoy it, but once I got into it I really liked it. I especially enjoyed the last quarter or so of the book, when sean is in a certain situation that I can’t share here due to spoilers. I sort of liked how the author paced the novel slowly for the first half or more, and then really upped the action afterwards. It helped to build suspense, but it also made for a reallllly long exposition, and a relatively boring rising action. Additionally, the main character was a burglar as a teenager, and is extremely overconfident. However, he never seems to fail and knows how to do virtually everything, even if it makes no logical sense. I didn’t like those few aspect of the book much. Regardless, Terminal, by Robin Cook, was a very good read that I would recommend to a friend.
April 3, 2021
This has to be one of my favourites. Intriguing, stimulating, funny, and just plain fun. I felt the urge to pull out my text from an immunology course to enrich my understanding of the characters experiences. It was a little disconcerting though to find myself reviewing parts of the novel as if I were going to tested on it. Old terrors die hard. I envied some of the technology Sean had. When my classmates and I were taking our karyotypes in genetics class we had to climb the stairwells and drop the samples down to burst open our cells for study.
I really enjoyed the Sean character. He was such a hoot, but at the same time I had sympathy and respect for him. The abusive childhood could explain the tendency for sudden impulsive violence. Perhaps some anger management counselling could help the main character, but I’m not sure how much else he could change.
I was surprised Sean was totally out of the Hockey scene in the novel given the character set-up. There was no mention of buddies from the team. There was mention of his muscles, but we never saw him work out. A former athlete would likely either develop a fitness regimen or go to pot with no coach drilling him anymore. I was pleased to see him do a “body check” to someone when on the run.
The idiot-savant syndrome for scientists as presented in the novel is certainly true in my experience, but not changeable. So I could see the Janet character getting along with Sean as long as she accepted that he wasn’t going to change much.
I figured out a key part of the ending before it happened, and pretty much had everything figured when Sean had his epiphany. I couldn’t see any good reason for the protagonist not to give at least a few summary sentences of the plot he had uncovered to key people to keep the information and himself more safe, except for Cook trying to keep the reader in suspense.
Despite that, I did find the ending very satisfying, and fully wrapped up.
I really enjoyed the Sean character. He was such a hoot, but at the same time I had sympathy and respect for him. The abusive childhood could explain the tendency for sudden impulsive violence. Perhaps some anger management counselling could help the main character, but I’m not sure how much else he could change.
I was surprised Sean was totally out of the Hockey scene in the novel given the character set-up. There was no mention of buddies from the team. There was mention of his muscles, but we never saw him work out. A former athlete would likely either develop a fitness regimen or go to pot with no coach drilling him anymore. I was pleased to see him do a “body check” to someone when on the run.
The idiot-savant syndrome for scientists as presented in the novel is certainly true in my experience, but not changeable. So I could see the Janet character getting along with Sean as long as she accepted that he wasn’t going to change much.
I figured out a key part of the ending before it happened, and pretty much had everything figured when Sean had his epiphany. I couldn’t see any good reason for the protagonist not to give at least a few summary sentences of the plot he had uncovered to key people to keep the information and himself more safe, except for Cook trying to keep the reader in suspense.
Despite that, I did find the ending very satisfying, and fully wrapped up.
October 12, 2015
Even though the book gives little/no hint of suspense in the 'starting' , the story, as it progresses, keeps you from putting the book down. Definitely there are loads of biotechnology and Molecular biology references and one with no interest in that or cancer stuff might find it exaggerated medical jargon. I personally liked the protagonist unlike the usual ideal fellows we always expect. This being my first medical thriller...I loved it.
December 6, 2018
The dust cover tells you a lot about the story, the blurb on this site tells a little, and I tell you it's more than those. It also includes the lengths a woman will go to for love and the coming-of-age of a brilliant man who couldn't leave his childhood (Friday nights drinking with buddies, pick-up games) behind until he finally grew up.
Want to read
July 28, 2011After collecting dust on my shelf for many years, I decided it is time to let go of the books in this series.
I used to like them a lot, but the magic seems to have gone. Maybe I can do someone else a favor.
I used to like them a lot, but the magic seems to have gone. Maybe I can do someone else a favor.
January 5, 2012
An entertaining read.
September 1, 2016
An entertaining read.
October 22, 2018
Seneler önce okumuştum ama çok ilgimi çektiğini hatırlıyorum, iyi bir kitaptı.
March 22, 2021
No se si le tenia en un "pedestal" pero se me ha caido del todo, no se si es que este es malo o que siempre han sido asi los libros de Cook, pero me ha defraudado un monton, anodino y aburrido.
December 16, 2023
I really don't know wtf I just read, so I found this crusty book in my parents library and I'd imagine it was a book written in that time and seeing as that's the case, I'd have to admit this book was a product of its time and that's not even saying the book is boring (I mean it generally is but it gets a little better towards the middle with everything climaxing) but the characters made this book so hard to like, I could hardly connect to 1 mf, so let's go through them shall we
SEAN MURPHY: this weirdo is annoying, I find him as such a coward and irritating MC, no cause tell me why you chased after a girl, didn't make it clear you weren't in a relationship whilst u both hooked up and still tried to leave her in that emotional confusing limbo whilst u run off to Florida without planning on telling her and then u end up saying u love her? What kind of love is that and then when he says "I'm just not good with my emotions" it was so jarring cause here's the thing, I'm a guy and nothing irritates me more than emotionally immature male main characters yet authors keep writing it like being emotionally immature makes the guy cooler or something. And speaking of weird characters authors keep writing, let's talk about the female character.
JANET READSON
Now I support women's rights but not this mumu cause tell me why the whole metoo movement left Ur body just cuz u met an.irish man? U were literally ready to uproot Ur while life from Ur state, leave Ur family and friends and move to Florida? FOR A MAN? FOR DICK? Bfr... Mind u, this mumu almost got killed in Florida by a serial killer all because she was chasing a man that didn't even see u as worth his time.. and on that note,can I just say why tf did robin cook decide to write the woman in this book as either evil masterminds or sexy Madonna, literally no middle ground, cause why tf is Janet getting jealous any her bf (I mean he's barely a bf) and his patient... I repeat, PATIENTS relationship all cuz she's a fellow girl.. like bruh, that babe is dying do u think she has the time to steal it man. And seeing as these are the two main characters in the whole book, I was left exhausted everytime they were in any scene which happened a lot by the way.
Lastly, I just want to mention the dialogues are weird, not in like a cringe way but in a "who talks like this" kind of way. Like, maybe it's cause the book was written in the late 19's or whatever but every dialogue felt so formal and weird, even amongst ppl dating, like why tf are u talking in official medical terms when u can just talk like, I don't know, a fucking human being, and the brother of Sean's the best and worst at that fr.
I know I just seem to be complaining but tbh the book wasn't so bad, it still managed to keep most of its thrill and mystery even though it's been old and I learnt a little about cancer and cancer causing cells, the best story line is still the Tom Widdicomb story line, tbh, Janet should hv been the main character but why write about a woman going to another state to pursue her career whilst being a target of a serial killer and uncovering the weirdness of a Cancer centre when u can instead give us an emotionally unstable bro wannabe who's willing to risk the jobs and career of the girl he says he loves just so he can do his little fun experiments, I didn't even mention how this guy literally used Janet and his love for her was very situational when she was of service to him but if I went into that can of worms, this reviews gonna take forever. So bye
SEAN MURPHY: this weirdo is annoying, I find him as such a coward and irritating MC, no cause tell me why you chased after a girl, didn't make it clear you weren't in a relationship whilst u both hooked up and still tried to leave her in that emotional confusing limbo whilst u run off to Florida without planning on telling her and then u end up saying u love her? What kind of love is that and then when he says "I'm just not good with my emotions" it was so jarring cause here's the thing, I'm a guy and nothing irritates me more than emotionally immature male main characters yet authors keep writing it like being emotionally immature makes the guy cooler or something. And speaking of weird characters authors keep writing, let's talk about the female character.
JANET READSON
Now I support women's rights but not this mumu cause tell me why the whole metoo movement left Ur body just cuz u met an.irish man? U were literally ready to uproot Ur while life from Ur state, leave Ur family and friends and move to Florida? FOR A MAN? FOR DICK? Bfr... Mind u, this mumu almost got killed in Florida by a serial killer all because she was chasing a man that didn't even see u as worth his time.. and on that note,can I just say why tf did robin cook decide to write the woman in this book as either evil masterminds or sexy Madonna, literally no middle ground, cause why tf is Janet getting jealous any her bf (I mean he's barely a bf) and his patient... I repeat, PATIENTS relationship all cuz she's a fellow girl.. like bruh, that babe is dying do u think she has the time to steal it man. And seeing as these are the two main characters in the whole book, I was left exhausted everytime they were in any scene which happened a lot by the way.
Lastly, I just want to mention the dialogues are weird, not in like a cringe way but in a "who talks like this" kind of way. Like, maybe it's cause the book was written in the late 19's or whatever but every dialogue felt so formal and weird, even amongst ppl dating, like why tf are u talking in official medical terms when u can just talk like, I don't know, a fucking human being, and the brother of Sean's the best and worst at that fr.
I know I just seem to be complaining but tbh the book wasn't so bad, it still managed to keep most of its thrill and mystery even though it's been old and I learnt a little about cancer and cancer causing cells, the best story line is still the Tom Widdicomb story line, tbh, Janet should hv been the main character but why write about a woman going to another state to pursue her career whilst being a target of a serial killer and uncovering the weirdness of a Cancer centre when u can instead give us an emotionally unstable bro wannabe who's willing to risk the jobs and career of the girl he says he loves just so he can do his little fun experiments, I didn't even mention how this guy literally used Janet and his love for her was very situational when she was of service to him but if I went into that can of worms, this reviews gonna take forever. So bye
February 8, 2022
Ich habe das Buch innerhalb weniger Tage quasi verschlungen und es ließ sich so unfassbar angenehm lesen.
Trotz dessen, dass ich erst vor kurzem "Die gute Tochter" beendet habe - und, ich glaube, max. 2 Tage nicht gelesen habe - konnte ich sofort mit den Charakteren connecten und habe sie in mein Herz geschlossen.
Das war außerdem auch mein erster Medizin-Thriller, den ich gelesen habe und obwohl ich die Hälfte von dem Fachjargon nicht verstanden habe, war es extrem spannend zu sehen, wie Forschungen so ablaufen (Forschungen laufen wahrscheinlich in Wahrheit nochmals anders, aber so ein Abriss davon haha)
Ich fand Sean als Charakter unfassbar cool und somit hatte ich die ganze Zeit Angst, dass er in größere Schwierigkeiten kommt - und vor allem zieht er Janet da noch mit rein T.T
Aber seine Willenskraft und seine Intelligenz sind wirklich bemerkenswert, aber auch seine Charakterentwicklung, die er durchläuft.
Somit kommen wir auch direkt zum Ende, welches mir auch sehr gefallen hat.
Trotz dessen, dass ich erst vor kurzem "Die gute Tochter" beendet habe - und, ich glaube, max. 2 Tage nicht gelesen habe - konnte ich sofort mit den Charakteren connecten und habe sie in mein Herz geschlossen.
Das war außerdem auch mein erster Medizin-Thriller, den ich gelesen habe und obwohl ich die Hälfte von dem Fachjargon nicht verstanden habe, war es extrem spannend zu sehen, wie Forschungen so ablaufen (Forschungen laufen wahrscheinlich in Wahrheit nochmals anders, aber so ein Abriss davon haha)
Ich fand Sean als Charakter unfassbar cool und somit hatte ich die ganze Zeit Angst, dass er in größere Schwierigkeiten kommt - und vor allem zieht er Janet da noch mit rein T.T
Aber seine Willenskraft und seine Intelligenz sind wirklich bemerkenswert, aber auch seine Charakterentwicklung, die er durchläuft.
Somit kommen wir auch direkt zum Ende, welches mir auch sehr gefallen hat.
July 16, 2025
This is a fabulous read. Fast paced, the shenanigans of Sean keep you on the edge and exasperated at times. Sean, a medical student, goes to Forbes Cancer Research Center in Miami as he is very interested in finding out the miraculous treatment that the center seems to have developed to cure brain tumor patients. However, as his work has been in a different area, he is not allowed to work on the cancer treatment bit, he still goes there. He is a brash but sharp person and often rubs people on the wrong side. His girlfriend Janet is fed up with his ways and goes after him to Miami to work as a nurse in the same hospital to try and discuss with him their future. Though Sean finds it tough to access the Cancer related work at Forbes, Janet is able to help him considerably and, in the process, goes on a whirlwind adventure trip. There’s a psycho in the hospital administering poison to cancer patients as his dead mother speaks to him in his head, who feels Janet is after him and so decides to eliminate her. Then there’s the mysterious Japanese firm which sees Sean as a threat and tries to abduct him away to Japan but is upended by the security team hired by Forbes. It’s a madhouse with Sean managing to outwit all of them and discovering the racket going on a Forbes after a hostage situation. As in many of the other books by the author, the end seems abrupt and underwhelming. Also there’s a lot of medical terminology in the book, which goes over the head.
All in all, a great book.
All in all, a great book.
February 24, 2023
AWFUL! The dialogue is stilted and the prose is lacking in every way (I spotted a few grammar mistakes as well). The narration is confused and the sentences are furiously simplistic and frequently state the obvious. (e.g. "Just at the moment the debate was reaching a frenzied climax, the entire bar went dead silent. One by one heads turned toward the front door. Something extraordinary had happened, and everyone was shocked. A woman had breached their all-male bastion. And it wasn’t an ordinary woman, like some overweight, gum-chewing girl in the laundromat. It was a slim, gorgeous woman who obviously wasn’t from Charlestown." and "Janet felt weak. Her emotions were raw . . . She felt totally confused"). Sean and his girlfriend Janet are uninteresting, obnoxious and two dimensional. It's clear from the start that they're an exercise in reductive ethnic stereotypes and misogyny, nothing more. The Irish characters are alcoholic criminals and the Japanese characters are polite, obedient businessmen or Yakuza. New characters are introduced every other page then unceremoniously abandoned but it's fine because they're so forgettable anyway. I wouldn't recommend this confusing meandering nightmare of a book to anyone.
August 23, 2025
3.5/5
This was a hard one to rate for me. Reading this as someone who has a (clinical) public health background was interesting because there is a surprising amount of medical jargon in this book. It was a story with a premise that definitely kept me interested, and the way Cook writes is particularly gripping. However, there were a few plot points/ character points that were particularly annoying:
1. I felt like Tom’s storyline added nothing to the actual story
2. It seemed unrealistic and all to convenient, that everytime Sean has an idea to break into somewhere, it magically works out. His literal lack of fear to mutilate a body and the ease with which he steals a HUMAN BRAIN in broad daylight is borderline unbelievable
3. On the topic of Sean, he’s way too… smart? I hate to say it but as someone with a physician spouse, his knowledge amasses anything he would have been taught in medical school and let alone someone with years of working in the field.
4. Janet’s flip floppy morals over fear of losing a morally grey man was astounding. Not in a good way
All the same I would read more by Robin cook
This was a hard one to rate for me. Reading this as someone who has a (clinical) public health background was interesting because there is a surprising amount of medical jargon in this book. It was a story with a premise that definitely kept me interested, and the way Cook writes is particularly gripping. However, there were a few plot points/ character points that were particularly annoying:
1. I felt like Tom’s storyline added nothing to the actual story
2. It seemed unrealistic and all to convenient, that everytime Sean has an idea to break into somewhere, it magically works out. His literal lack of fear to mutilate a body and the ease with which he steals a HUMAN BRAIN in broad daylight is borderline unbelievable
3. On the topic of Sean, he’s way too… smart? I hate to say it but as someone with a physician spouse, his knowledge amasses anything he would have been taught in medical school and let alone someone with years of working in the field.
4. Janet’s flip floppy morals over fear of losing a morally grey man was astounding. Not in a good way
All the same I would read more by Robin cook
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2024
Un thriller de medicina? Al principio puede parecer extraño, pero ya les aviso de que, aun parecer imposible, el libro consigue que la combinación no solo sea aceptable, sino buena. Hacer que un libro sobre investigación medica que no contenga las palabras alien, parasito, virus... (organismos potencialmente mortales por el resto de la población) mantenga un toque de misterio es complicado, pero Robin Cook consigue meterle al libro la sensación de incertidumbre que tanto nos gusta a los amantes de los Thrillers.
En caso de que tu seas uno de estos amantes, entonces te recomiendo que les des una oportunidad a un libro así, ya que te hará al menos ver del genero otras facetas que se le pueden dar. El autor, por lo que se, también acostumbra a hablar sobre medicina en todos sus libros y seguramente tendrá de mejores (al menos tiene mas populares) dentro su bibliografía, por lo que te recomiendo que o te quedes con este libro o bien explores un poco mas Robin Cook y le des al menos una oportunidad.
En caso de que tu seas uno de estos amantes, entonces te recomiendo que les des una oportunidad a un libro así, ya que te hará al menos ver del genero otras facetas que se le pueden dar. El autor, por lo que se, también acostumbra a hablar sobre medicina en todos sus libros y seguramente tendrá de mejores (al menos tiene mas populares) dentro su bibliografía, por lo que te recomiendo que o te quedes con este libro o bien explores un poco mas Robin Cook y le des al menos una oportunidad.
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