I had this book setting around for a while, as the plot sounded interesting but often not interesting enough for me to pick it over other options. So I took it on vacation, where I had only 2 choices. Turns out, my reservations about the plot were legitimate, as I got about halfway through, and nothing significant seemed to have happened yet.Dr. Daniel Logan chooses a career at the country's leading cancer research institute over more profitable options at leading hospitals. Upon arrival, he finds that competition is fierce and that it is all but guaranteed that most of his superiors will hate him with a passion once he chooses whose research projects he would like to make a contribution to with his work. In most places, this competition would be considered healthy and a factor in leading to great advances in treating cancer, but here, it is downright cutthroat. Logan and two of his colleagues discover an orphan drug that was hoped to be a treatment for AIDS patients but had negative effects on their adrenal glands. They feel they can spin those effects into a treatment for breast cancer, also glandular tissue, but when their patients in the trial die a horribly rapid death, much is at stake, including the scientists' jobs, their long term reputations, and perhaps their lives.The premise seemed OK, but as I read, I didn't feel a connection to anyone but Logan, as his colleagues (with the exception of perhaps his female co-researcher/love interest from Italy) seemed aloof and only out for themselves, and the senior researchers were all egotistical jerks towards everyone around them, similar to the junior researchers, but 10 times as obnoxious. The subplot Stein included about the First Lady getting cancer was far more interesting than the main story, but readers only get snippets of that until the stories converge.All in all, not the worst book I've ever read, but not particularly memorable either.
As a member of the medical field,I found this book amusing to read, being set up in a world I'm familiar with in terms of work, but not much when it comes to literature or entertainment, but I bet any non-medical personnel will find it dull and too much medical terms involved,right?but on the other hand,the ending could have been better given the pace of the novel where we got to live each detail of the story,but not the same with ending which I felt was like watching a cheap movie who it's director just wanted to end it!and btw,I feel that this book was wrote to be a scenario or somehow!
