91av

Mysterious illness plays a large role in Robin Cook’s latest, Fatal Cure (Pan, £4.99, ISBN 0 330 33702 5). True to form, it has a clever plot and decent characters although, as with most of Cook’s work, it doesn’t take long to figure out what happens next. Two young medics and their daughter move to Vermont, medical heaven after the big city. But when a mysterious illness wipes out more and more patients, both the community hospital and the local healthcare coordinating body that treated the patients are more concerned with money than proper medical care. Sounds familiar? Rest assured, there is more going on than meets the eye, but not much more. Fatal Cure also offers insights into the relationships between hospitals and healthcare groups -probably more than most people want.