[.ca] Vector (ISBN 0425172996)

Chronique amazon.fr:
Lorsque le médecin légiste Jack Stapleton est réveillé à quatre heures et demie du matin par un coup de téléphone de son amie Laurie, il reste interloqué. Alors que leurs bureaux sont tout proches, avait-elle besoin de l'appeler si tôt simplement pour l'inviter à dîner au restaurant ? N'arrivant pas à se rendormir, il enfourche son vélo et rallie la morgue de Manhattan où l'attend une journée chargée. Il doit autopsier Jason Papparis, un négociant en tapis mort brusquement, suite à des difficultés respiratoires. Grande est sa surprise lorsqu'il découvre que l'homme a succombé à la maladie du charbon. De son côté, Laurie examine le corps mutilé de Brad, un jeune skinhead membre de l'"Armée du peuple aryen" qui renseignait le FBI sur ce mouvement. Les responsables de ce groupuscule, Curt Rogers et Carl Ryerson, tous deux gradés chez les pompiers, ont éliminé Brad pour éviter que soit compromis l'infernal projet mis au point pour se venger du gouvernement. Grâce à Youri Davydov, immigré russe spécialiste en microbiologie, ils ont mis au point un attentat qui va permettre de répandre dans la ville des milliers de bactéries mortelles. Comment stopper ce "vecteur" mortel ? De nouveau, Jack Stapleton et Laurie Montgomery, le couple fétiche de l'Américain Robin Cook, se trouvent aux premières loges pour mettre à jour une diabolique machination. Ce roman, où suspense et romance sont judicieusement dosés, captive le lecteur jusqu'à la dernière page. --Claude Mesplède

From Amazon.com:
Robin Cook's latest plot--the threat of an anthrax \obacterium\c turned loose in a New York government building and in Central Park--is ripped straight from the headlines, and as such it may be charitably described as having a certain lumpish quality in the prose and an overabundance of cuteness in the lead characters. Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, the dueling forensic pathologists who bounced off each other in Cook's Chromosome 6, collide and combine once again as a mad Russian cabdriver, who used to work in a Moscow bioweapons factory, comes up with a plan to punish America for not welcoming him with open arms. The cabby forms an unlikely alliance with two firemen who happen to be white supremacists; they fund his anthrax research to further their own lunatic schemes. Cook is, as ever, best at creating scenes of perfectly realized medical terror which plug into the paranoia of the moment. But if you want deep characters and sensitive description, read Fay Weldon. --Dick Adler

relevant to today:
This book was amidst several books another booklover passed on to me. I hadn't read his books before and for some reason I have been blessed with several of them from different people lately and as I am a booklover, I appreciated them all. The book was written in 1999 and was eerily prophetic to what happened on 9-11 in 2001, so it held my interest. Of course, it is a different tale altogether, but still there is a similarity. Yuri Davydov, a Russian taxi driver, who emmigrated to the U.S. to find the good life is very disillusioned at the failed promises of what he thinks the "Jewish media" (his paranoid delusion) had promised for those coming to America. He can't find a better job than that of driving a taxi. He had worked in a Bioweapons factory in Russia and figured he deserved better. He hooks up with a couple of white Aryans of the radical right militia belief who want to destroy the "the Zionist government" and are extremely prejudiced against anyone not white, etc. They concoct a plan that the Aryans will supply Yuri with the materials and he would develop anthrax and a botulinum toxin. Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, who are both in the pathologist forensics department, are presented with two separate cases that are seemingly unrelated until further investigation. His case is the death of a man from anthrax and her case is about a young man that has been killed in a horrible manner as a result of what looks like his connection to a neo/Nazi gang. I thought it was a rather interesting story and made me wonder at what causes so many evil thoughts and feelings in people that they would want to do such cruel and inhumane actions. It also makes you wonder about the scientists that develop these weapons and if they ever feel guilty about their satanic projects. The book makes you think and kept my interest to the end.

Vector:
When I decided to return to the arena of medical thrillers for some summer escapism, I figured: what better author to return to than the king of the subgenre, Robin Cook, who thrilled me with Coma so many years ago? And in truth, Vector is a lively read. But it has a few problems. This story lets you peek at both the machinations of the bad-guys--in this case, a disillusioned Russian emigre to the U.S. who has forged a sinister alliance with an extreme right-wing organization called the People's Aryan Army--as they cook up a plan, and the ingredients to unleash anthrax and botulinum threats in New York, while also checking in thoroughly with our hero, Jack Stapleton of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who, through his gruesome work, unknowingly comes across hints that terrorism is fermenting around him. This means that there is not much mystery to the story, of the superb type I recall from Coma. We have, layed out for us, all aspects of what's going on, and most of the suspense derives from the reader knowing of dangers that Jack does not know, or can't seem to figure out fast enough to save hundreds of thousands in the Big Apple, smart and intrepid though he may be. Thankfully, he gets some help and inspiration from various associates, among them Laurie Montgomery, who unsettles him when she introduces her to dashing Paul Sutherland, new love of her life (thus is the romantic triangle subplot spring upon us--although, call it a love trapezoid, as we have another fella named Lou, likeable Doctor-guy, also pining for Laura). But the romantic dithering is a less than satisfying aspect of the novel, as is the book's final stages, where a clever bit of surprise-inclusion comes in tandem with a rather dull final confrontation between heroes and villains, in terms of action and all-out excitement. Anthrax and botulinum do come across as very nasty weapons when in the hands of terrorists, in this story. Jack Stapleton is a character with scads of moxey--bucking proper process and putting his job in the line to follow up slim clues that a few seemingly random deaths point to a ticking clock of certain doom--and I like his style (especially on a bicycle immersed in New York city traffic while a small army of gun-toting terrorists are pulling up beside him, or when talking cool at the point of a pistol held by a paranoid bioweapons expert in a room loaded with anthrax spores). But everything is so obvious to the reader, that I kept hoping for something to leap out of nowhere and shake up the story. I also felt that the story hinged on a few big coincidences--and besides that, didn't generate the kind of heart-stopping suspense a first-rate medical thriller could do. But it was a fun read, in an unnerving kind of way, and it was a treat to return to Robin Cook's work after so many years; I had been quite frightened by the film Coma as a youngster and eventually went on to read the book. Vector is too open and obvious in its machinations to compete with that earlier, chilling story, but it has its moments.

The best book I have ever read:
I am one of those people who dread to read books unless forced to. In this case I was forced to read Vector for summer reading in my high school. I have to admit the first couple of chapters sort of dragged, but then I was so into it I couldn't put it down. It sort of scares you the reality in this book how some people are capable of such disturbing things. I found this book to be one of the most interesting I have ever read. Robin Cook is an amazing author, especially in this book.

Ruined by the author's heavy-handed personal agendas:
After "Contagion" I was very much looking forward to reading "Vector", but unfortunately this time around Cook sacrifices so much character believability for the sake of political podium-pounding against militia members, and other "right wing" issues that it feels more like a sermon than a novel. Its not even so much as whom he attacks as it is how, as far as Timothy McVeigh-type nutcases go I'm the last person to defend them. But the bad guys in "Vector" sound so unnatural, making sure to squeeze in every single paranoid anti-government, racist cliché in to seemingly every conversation that they come off as spontaneous as your average spokesman in a TV public service announcement, they couldn't possibly sound phonier if Cook tried. And the good guy's sound almost as bad, sometimes bringing conversations to screeching halts just to spout some completely unrelated statistic that the author wants to get out, people simply don't talk this way whatever their political bent is and all credibility goes right out the window. So what is the point I'm trying to make about "Vector?" If Cook is just going to start outright preaching about politics, then he should write a non-fiction about it, heck he may find a fan base there too. But he shouldn't try to rope-a-dope fiction readers by sneaking it in what is suppose to be pure entertainment, and then beating them over the head with it like mind-numbed idiots, because that's exactly what he did here and it fails on both counts.

One of his better novels:
This is one of the better novels by Cook. The character of Laurie is not really credible. As a doctor she must be intelligent enough to judge people - at least rudimentary. As usual Cook's men are more realistic characters. The plot is very realistic - as we know now. And this is why the ending is a little disappointing. Maybe Cook was afraid of his own courage when looking into the future. We have to be prepared. This novel is not only highly political, reality has even overtaken fiction. This is why this novel should be read by those responsible for our security. Maybe they see the nightmare that is hinted at here.