Robin Cook: Toxin (UK 2014)

From the Publisher:
Just when you thought it was safe to eat a hamburger again, Robin Cook – master of medical mysteries, deadly epidemics, and creepy comas – returns with an all too likely villain drawn right from current headlines: the American meat industry.

If you've ever wondered where the E. coli bacteria comes from, and exactly how it can ravage the human body, destroying everything in its path, this is the book for you. As usual, in Toxin, Cook delivers solid information, well-researched medical arcana, and a scathing indictment of managed health care.

Robin Cook: Toxin. Food-borne illness - our latest nightmare. Pan Macmillan, ISBN: 9781447246510 (June, 1999), eBook, 0.46 MB (ca. 448 p.), £3.99.

Robin Cook: Toxin (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
A shocking tale of bacterial poisoning and corporate malevolence -- straight out of the latest headlines.
Recently divorced surgeon Dr Kim Reggis is determined to remain a good father to his only child, Becky. One night he takes her to a fast-food restaurant for a feast of burgers and fries, but tragedy strikes when the young girl falls ill. She dies horrifically several days later, as a result of poisoning by E. coli bacteria.

Everything suggests her death was the result of shoddy food-handling practices, but who is going to admit to that?

Frantic with grief, Kim throws all his energies into tracing the cause of the contamination. He is well prepared for bureaucratic indifference, but is soon met with terrifying violence as powerful vested interests conspire to discourage his enquiries.

Aided by his ex-wife, Kim pursues a deadly trail of complicity and guilt stretching from the slaughterhouse floor to the corporate boardroom. And, in a race against time before others are poisoned, they finally come face to face with the shocking and elusive truth... meanwhile putting their own lives in extreme danger.

The acknowledged master of the medical thriller again delivers a cutting-edge drama that combines today's worst fears with tomorrow's medical technology.

Robin Cook: Toxin. Food-borne illness - our latest nightmare. Pan, ISBN: 0330368990 (June, 1999), 448 p., £5.99.

Robin Cook: Toxin (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Just how safe is America's meat supply? Recent health scares and new public awareness have made this one of today's most controversial subjects -- and the basis of Robin Cook's most startling, and important, novel. When a doctor's daughter becomes infected with E. coli, the widespread dangers of bacterial contamination are no longer a subject for debate, but a grim reality. In desperation, he is forced to follow a trail of ignorance and corruption from the tangled red-tape of the medical community to the highest levels of the powerful meat industry. It is an eye-opening thriller that every American should read...

Robin Cook: Toxin. Berkley Books, ISBN: 0425166619 (February, 1999), 432 p., $7.99.

Robin Cook: Toxin (UK 1998)

From the Publisher:
Newly divorced surgeon Dr Kim Regis is determined to remain a good father to his only son. On a special night out, he takes Selden to his favourite fast-food restaurant for a feast of burgers and fries. But the good time turns to tragedy when the young boy becomes gravely ill and dies within hours as a result of poisoning by E. coli bacteria. Was Selden's death a result of shoddy food-handling? Or was it a case of product tampering by a rival chain or a disgruntled employee? Kim is determined to solve the mystery, but encounters walls of silence and threats of physical violence. Gradually he uncovers a deadly trail of complicity and guilt that stretches from the slaughterhouse floor to the corporate boardroom - in a race against time before others die.

Robin Cook: Toxin. Food-borne illness - our latest nightmare. Macmillan, ISBN: 0333730348 (July, 1998), 356 p., £16.99.

Robin Cook: Toxin (USA 1998)

From the Publisher:
A gripping novel of bacterial poisoning and corporate malevolence, from the dean of medical thrillers.
Dr. Kim Reggis, one of the country's top cardiac surgeons, finds himself ill equipped to deal with a medical catastrophe involving his own daughter, Becky. Newly divorced, Kim takes Becky to her favourite fast-food restaurant on a special night out. The quintessential American meal of burgers and fries leads to tragedy. Over the following week Becky becomes gravely ill from E. coli bacterial poisoning.

Beginning with the initial emergency room visit, Kim is driven to distraction by the realities of current medicine. Already beaten down by the indignities of a major hospital merger and the subsequent loss of his departmental chairmanship, Kim collides head-on with cost-cutting rules that restrict his daughter's treatment. As Becky's condition worsens, the surgeon is driven over the edge by his inability to alter the inexorable progression. When the administration revokes his hospital privileges, Kim is forced out into the cold.

Half crazed by grief, Kim launches himself on an inquiry to learn how and why his daughter got sick. The trail of deadly evidence of shoddy meat-industry practices and complicity stretches from the slaughterhouse to the industry hierachy to the USDA. Aided in his quest by his ex-wife, Tracy, and a young, idealistic USDA inspector, Kim ultimately learns the shocking truth -- but the price may be his life and the lives of those he loves.

With trademark pulse-pounding flair, Robin Cook delivers a cutting-edge thriller, borrowing from today's fears and tomorrow's headlines. Toxin is roller-coaster entertainment.

Robin Cook: Toxin. Putnam's, ISBN: 0399143165 (March, 1998), 357 p., $24.95.