Intervention Hardback - 2009

by Robin Cook

New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cookreturns with another ripped-from-the-headlinesmedical thriller, where DNA science, biotechnology,and religion collide.It's been more than thirty years since New York City medicalexaminer Jack Stapleton's college graduation and almostas long since he'd been in touch with former classmatesShawn Doherty and Kevin Murray. Once a highly regarded ophthalmologist,Jack's career took a dramatic turn after a tragicaccident that destroyed his family. But that, too, is very much inthe past: Jack has remarried-to longtime colleague and fellowmedical examiner Laurie Montgomery-and is the father ofa young child. But his renegade, activist personality can't rest,and after performing a postmortem on a young college studentwho had recently been treated by a chiropractor, Jack decides toexplore alternative medicine. What makes some people stepoutside the medical establishment to seek care from practitionersof Eastern philosophies and even faith healers?Jack's classmate Shawn Doherty is now a renowned archeologistand biblical scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,whose taste for good wine and generally deteriorating healthare taking a toll on his career. He has recently obtained permissionfor a final dig beneath Saint Peter's, and despite hislong-standing grudge against the Catholic Church, begins hisresearch-which eventually takes him to Jerusalem and Venice-only to make a startling discovery with ecclesiastical andmedical implications. And when Kevin Murray, now Bishop ofthe Archdiocese of New York, gets wind of Shawn's findings,he's desperate to keep them from the public. Kevin has strongpolitical ambitions within the Church, but his association withShawn threatens to undermine them. Kevin turns to his oldfriend Jack to help protect an explosive secret-one with thepower to change lives forever.