INTERVENTION (Robin Cook)

This book is a departure for Robin Cook, starting as a medical thriller and gradually evolving into something similar in theme to the DaVinci code. Dr. Jack Stapleton and his wife, Dr. Laurie Montgomery, both NYC Medical Examiners, are the parents of a 4 month old boy with neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve tissue. While waiting for additional treatments to begin, Jack and Laurie consider the possibility of alternative medicine, but when Jack autopsies a healthy woman in her 20's and discovers that her death was the result of chiropractic manipulation of her neck he begins to investigate alternative therapies and their consequences. He discovers in the course of his inquiries that many people choose chiropractic or other remedies in lieu of a general practicioner/physician because these alternative practitioners are able to provide personal, unhurried care, something that is now lacking in the medical profession.

At this point in the novel I was ready for an interesting thriller about the dangers of alternative medicine used inappropriately, but this did not come to fruition (note to Robin Cook: this would make a great theme for a future novel!). Instead, Jack becomes involved with 2 old college friends, a high-ranking cardinal, James, and an anthropologist, Shawn. While attending a conference in Egypt Shawn comes across evidence that the bones of the Virgin Mary are buried in an ossuary that has been placed near the tomb of Saint Peter in the Vatican. Shawn believes that he and his wife (conveniently an expert in DNA analysis) can retrieve the ossuary and prove that the bones belong to Mary, the mother of God, who was, according to Catholic doctrine and under the cloak of Papal infallibility, assumed bodily into Heaven after her death. Cardinal James, on the other hand, fears that this venture could destroy both his career and Catholic acceptance of Papal infallibility, the notion that the Pope is free from the possibility of error in matters of Church dogma..

The whole idea that the mother of Jesus could have had other children (as evidenced by the bones) and that her bones could actually exist somewhere is an intriguing concept. I think that overall the book is well written and adequately researched. I think that the plot concerning aleternative medicine should have been developed more fully and brought to some sort of conclusion, and I believe that the ending of the drama concerning the ossuary was a little contrived. I almost felt as if Cook had gotten tired of the whole thing and wanted to finish up and move on. Overall, though, it was worth reading. Anytime I keep thinking about a book after I am done I know that it was worth my time!