Mindbend
Robin Cook

When young dancer Jennifer Schonberg becomes pregnant by accident, her feelings are mixed - but her husband, Adam, is far more ambivalent. For Adam, a third-year medical student already in financial straits, the loss of Jennifer's income and the cost of the coming child mean he must drop out of medical school - on the eve of becoming a doctor.
Against the advice of his teachers, his colleagues, and his wife most of all, Adam takes a job as a salesman for the vastly powerful drug company Arolen Pharmaceuticals, whose influence is known to penetrate deep into the physicians' world. But just how awesome Arolen's control is over the medical profession Adam is yet to discover. It will become all too clear in a series of increasingly terrifying revelations: corruption old as greed itself; bizarre brutality serving as a futuristic vision of hell; the preservation of life turned to a deadly purpose. And awaiting him at the end of his violent odyssey is a confrontation grave beyond imagining, in which the survival of Jennifer's unborn child hangs in the balance as Adam fights to save his family - and the soul of medicine - from the overwhelming evil that is Mindbend.

Mindbend had a good idea behind it - just how far are drug companies willing to go to sell their products? However, the answer in this book is completely unrealistic. The idea of a drug company giving doctor's free vacations and then doing brain surgery on them to mind control them is more than outlandish. Suddenly, a normal doctor decides he'll only prescribe their drugs. These doctors then wish to go to work at a clinic known for abortions, telling women with normal babies that they need abortions for various reasons so that the drug company can get these fetuses for experimentation.

I understand that a lot of drug companies want to push their drugs and send salesmen to doctor's office hoping that their drug will be prescribed over another's brand, but the idea of turning doctor's into automatons just isn't realistic. The idea behind this book is good, but the oddness of it throws the reader off to the point where you just know that this is fiction.

Also, a lot of the actions of Adam, the lead character, are such that the reader will be rolling their eyes wondering why any person would make such decisions. This also pulls you out of the book.

The secondary character of Adam's wife Jennifer is also unrealistic. What woman in her right mind would decide to have an abortion the day after a bad amniocentesis result? Has this women not heard of second opinions?

It just all seemed far too fantastical for a medical drama and when the characters are constantly doing stupid things, you just want to scream at them through the pages.

Mt rating: Three out of five snails.