Book Review: Charlatans

Book: Charlatans
Author: Robin Cook
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK
416 pages
Rs 344

Four decades since his first novel Coma was published in 1977, Robin Cook has not lost his touch. His knowledge of the world of medicine and medical terminology is just as wide, but he also seems to have kept pace with all the changes in technology.

His latest book, Charlatans, lives up to expectation as a gripping thriller. Cook, a physician in the US, takes the reader deep into the world of hospitals, doctors, allied staff, raising questions over their degrees and educational qualifications at a time when all such information is available online at the click of a button. One gets hooked as the mystery unravels; the plot itself is revealed in the prologue while the rest of the book comprises the various twists and turns of the investigation. The ending, though, is somewhat loose and unsatisfying.

Charlatans is set in Boston Memorial Hospital where Dr Noah Rothauser, the super chief resident and the protagonist, finds himself in the center of unexpected action when three patients die in the middle of routine operations in a matter of weeks. While the leading surgeon Dr William Mason puts the blame on anesthesiologist Dr Ava London, she points a finger at him and other lapses in procedure in the first case of the death of an otherwise healthy man.

In the course of the investigation, Noah feels attracted to Ava, though it turns out later that Ava had conspired to save herself by getting into a romantic/sexual relationship with him. Noah, a work alcoholic who is virtually married to his job, is suspended during the course of the investigation. Ava turns out to be a complicated character who is addicted to social media and maintains a number of fake profiles. Towards the end, it is revealed that all of Ava's degrees were fake and that she had gained all her knowledge by reading up on the subjects. Ava, however, claims the deaths were not the result of her fake degrees, but for reasons that were beyond her control. Inexplicably, she somehow manages to involve Noah as well in the conspiracy and the novel ends happily with Noah being reinstated and Ava continuing with her practice.

"Wake up, my friend!" Ava says in the book. "Come and join the digital age in the twenty first century! The basis of knowledge has changed. It is not hidden away any longer by professional societies, some more secret and restrictive than others. Knowledge of just about everything is now available online for everyone, not just the few who are lucky enough for whatever reason to go to the right schools. Even professional medical experience and expertise is available in simulation centers with computer-driven mannequins that are better in many respects to the real thing."

That's sounds like a half-baked and somewhat dangerous proposition, putting a question mark on the entire infrastructure of medical education. Surely we can't have Internet trained physicians trying out their dubiously-acquired knowledge on patients. With so much medical information floating on the Internet, that would be a dangerous precedent.

The book is an exhilarating read. There's plentiful use of medical jargon, like with Cook's other books, but it's all contextualised and explained so readers have little difficulty getting the drift. However, one can't be blamed for thinking twice before going to a hospital for any surgery after reading Charlatans.