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Book Review By Bruce L. Spars
Marker by Robin Cook

Marker is a concise story, which focuses upon the relationship (physical and emotional) between two medical examiners, Julie and Jack.

Jack and Julie have been dating and working together for nearly a decade and their relationship has not yet developed into an offer of marraige from Jack and an acceptance of Julie's desire to have a family. Both Jack and Julie are main characters who handle autopsies of a variety of natures.

Julie picks up on a significant number of deaths which cannot be explained through autopsy, pathology and/or chemical analysis. She is deeply troubled by the expanding number of unexplainable deaths and becomes obsessed with uncovering the reason for the deaths. Initially the deaths appear to be coming from one main hospitial, but through research, Julie discovers there have been a number of additional unexplainable deaths of young, healthy, post operative patients from a variety of other hospitals.

The individual responsible for all of the unexplained deaths is identified early in the story as a frustrated psychopath who has moved from an unsuccessful military career to nursing. "Jaz" is obsessesed with physical fitness and is extremely dedicated to maintaining her edge of physical strength. "Jaz" is paranoid to the extant and has been contacted by two mysterious and unknown individuals to do "contract" terminations of select patients in the hospital where she is employed. She is highly successful with her terminations and is building her savings to advance her lifestyle.

The novel is clear, easy to read, concise, well explained with numerous references to medical situations. The story culmulnates in a near death experience for Julie as she gets close to identifying the killer and uncovering the main motive for the terminations.

The over all story is believable yet not up to the standards of a Robin Cook best seller. Having read every book this author has written, this work falls short of the standards Robin Cook has set in the past.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story:
Medical Thriller Yes
Medical Plotlets:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 30 %
Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status:
Age: - 40's-50's
Has special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character:
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status:
Has special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main antagonist:
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
The antagonists are: - big business leader(s)
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Mid-Atlantic states
City? Yes

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references
A lot of techno jargon? Yes
Kind of jargon? - biology/medical
Unusual forms of death - poisoning
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
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