Charlatans

June 26, 2017
Dr. Noah Rothauser, the lead of this suspenseful medical thriller from bestseller Cook (Host), is thrilled to become the chief resident at Boston Memorial, one of the country’s preeminent teaching hospitals. The one cloud on the horizon is the recent death, during surgery, of popular employee Bruce Vincent, who was in charge of the hospital’s parking division. Boston Memorial’s prima donna surgeon, William Mason, performed the surgery on Vincent at the same time as he was conducting other operations, a practice known as concurrent surgeries. To shield himself from attack, Mason insists that Noah focus the hospital’s review of what led to Vincent’s death on the anesthesiologist. Despite Mason’s threat that disregarding his wishes will affect Noah’s career, the younger doctor pursues the truth, even as two shadowy hit men build a body count in a subplot whose relevance emerges in tantalizing increments. While most readers will be a step ahead of the sometimes naive Noah, everyone will be rooting for this sympathetic character.

This latest Robin Cook thriller about medicine and fraud is nicely performed, as usual, by George Guidall. The plot is slow to develop, and the two protagonists, physicians at a top-flight teaching hospital, are just not very believable. However, the story's shortcomings do not throw Guidall off. If any of the characters in this audiobook resemble three-dimensional living people at all, it is largely due to his efforts. There are lots and lots of good audiobooks narrated by Guidall from which to choose. Through no fault of his, this isn't one of them. G.S.D. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine