Robin Cook: Mutation (USA 1990)

From the Publisher:
"THE KING OF MEDICAL THRILLERS IS BACK IN FULL BLOOM... REALLY FRIGHTENING!" -- BOOKLIST
No one explores the fascinating possibilities -- and shocking terrors -- of modern medicine quite like Robin Cook. Now, in his newest masterpiece of techno-medical suspense, Dr. Cook tells a story as chilling and real as today's headlines. On the forefront of surrogate parenting and genetic research, it is the explosive tale of a brilliant doctor who sought to create the son of his dreams -- and invented a living nightmare...

MUTATION

"A CHILLER... SWEEPS YOU ALONG AT AN EVER-SWIFTENING PACE!" -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
"COOK HAS DONE IT AGAIN... A GENUINE PAGE-TURNER!" -- JOHN BARKHAM REVIEWS
"A WHIRLWIND OF EXCITEMENT... THE READER DEVOURS EVERY WORD, EAGER TO FIND OUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT." -- US MAGAZINE
"UNDENIABLY ENTHRALLING!" -- KIRKUS

A CHOICE OF THE LITERARY GUILD

Robin Cook: Mutation. Berkley Books, ISBN: 0425119653 (February, 1990), 338 p., $4.95.

Robin Cook: Mutation (USA 1989)

From the Publisher:
He sought to create the son of his dreams -- and invented a nightmare. Robin Cook's new techno-medical thriller probes every father's greatest fear.

Drawing on a horror theme as old as Frankenstein, as fresh as tomorrow's headlines, Mutation is a chilling cautionary tale of the perils of genetic engineering.

When ob/gyn and biomolecular researcher Dr. Victor Frank learns of his wife's infertility, he initiates a bold -- and dangerous -- experiment. Unbeknownst to everyone, including her, Dr. Frank has adapted the methods of animal husbandry and molecular genetics to human reproduction. Fusing his wife's egg and his own sperm, he sets in motion the production of a superior being, his child.

The result of this experiment, a son, VJ, is born to a surrogate mother and legally adopted by the Franks. To their delight, their son is physically perfect, and, by the age of three, displays the complex problem-solving abilities of a prodigy. Victor Frank is a happy man. He has produced a flawless human being, and that success -- plus the subsequently health births he has covertly engineered through his obstetrics practice -- bodes well for a dazzling professional future.

Then, without warning, VJ's intelligence level plunges to a point appropriate to his age, but stabilizes. For the moment, Frank can breathe a sigh of relief. Even if VJ is no longer the genius he was, at least he will be normal.

But that relief is tragically short-lived, for all too soon VJ begins to change again. And this time, there is no cause for comfort -- only terror.

Mutation is both the spellbinding chronicle of a father pitted against his son in mythic battle and a timely warning to us all. Here is blue-chip Robin Cook, destined to be as controversial as it is compulsively readable.

Dr. Robin Cook, a graduate of the Columbia University Medical School, finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard. He is currently on leave from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He lives and writes in Florida.

Robin Cook: Mutation. Putnam's, ISBN: 0399134026 (February, 1990), 367 p., $18.95.