"Brain" is one of Robin Cook's earliest books. Cook, a practicing surgeon, and Michael Crichton (also a doctor) helped establish the place of medical thrillers/suspense by combining solid science, medical practice controversies and politics, and interesting premises.

In this book, written in 1981, the Assistant Chief of Neuroradiology, Dr. Martin Phillips, at a university medical center and one of his residents, Dr. Denise Stanger, stumble into an ugly secret in the course of pursuing their own research. Dr. Phillips is trying to develop a computer program with the help of the university's head of artificial intelligence that can assess an xray and make recommendations about what further tests should be done to further characterize the info in the analyzed xray. Patients turn up missing, dead and missing their brain as Dr. Phillips and Dr. Stanger gather xrays to incorporate in their database. What they learn about why this is happening puts them both in extreme danger, and is so horrifying they fear that the authorities will never believe them.

I have read many of Robin Cook's books. I didn't read this one the first time until a couple of years ago, when I began systematically reading his body of work. What I find fascinating about this book, aside from the excellent suspense story, is that at the time this was written, so much of the medical technology described was in its infancy, or in some cases, pipedreams. Like Jules Verne, Cook has fictional technology in this book that has become fact.

It does not seem strange to us twenty years after the book's publication that a CT Machine or MRI would include the computer's analysis of what it sees. However, at the time this book was written, the CT was a new machine used only for complicated assessment, and the MRI was being developed. Computer technology in the early 80's was much different as well--consider that the average PC hard drive of the mid 1980's was 20 megabytes and you begin to get some idea. For serious analysis, a mainframe was required. The size and expense of a mainframe computer meant that they were found primarily at universities or large, technology-driven companies. Today, PC harddrives often have 10 or 20 gigabytes storage capacity, making analysis for medical applications practical, cost effective, and portable.

The development of "organic" technology, that is, technology with a living component (for you Trekkies, that would be the Borg) at the time this book was written was beyond what was feasible. However, two days after I finished the book the first time in 1999, an AP Science article in the local paper reported that scientists had created a "living" computer chip by fusing rat neuron cells to chip technology.

One of the strength's of Cook's writing is making medical and scientific terminology readily understandable. So while some will find the vocabulary explanations cumbersome, it allows his books to be enjoyed by a larger audience. Unfortunately, one of Cook's weaknesses is character dialogue. Much of the dialogue seems a bit stilted in this book. Fortunately, his more recent books have dialogue that is a bit more polished, while retaining the accuracy of scientific content. This book would appeal to those who like medical suspense stories, and to those who enjoy reading thrillers involving technology.

Recommended: Yes