Toxin
Robin Cook

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 favorite 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 hierarchy 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.

While I feel that this is an absolutely phenominal book with a close up look at the poor state of the healthcare system and the shoddy practices of the meat industry, it is not for those with a weak stomach. There are very graphic scenes in this book. From the death of Becky, to what actually happens in a slaughterhouse, to where your hamburger really comes from, to a murder of a USDA inspector in a slaughterhouse - this book is for those who can deal with things that might make one sick or squeamish.

That being said, my other warning is that there is a very good chance that after reading this book, you will never want to eat another hamburger again. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and knowing what goes into hamburger is not something one can easily forget after reading this novel. True, this is a work of fiction, but it is one that the author wove the truth into. The state of the healthcare system (especially emergency rooms) and how your meat is processed is very real.

This book does, at times, tend to get a bit preachy as the author tries to get his point across. There's also a lot of exposition, although I suppose that is needed for the reader to fully understand what is happening.

This book is full of drama and suspense and comes with a message - something that is rarely found in fictional literature these days. The author is a doctor, so it is also extremely realistic both in the medical side of things and in how people would react given the situations they are put in. They might not make the smartest choices, but when you lose a loved one, especially to a disease that could have been prevented, you do not necessarily make rational decisions.

If you have a strong stomach and don't mind learning the truth about both the medical and the beef industries, then I do highly recommend this book.

My rating: Five out of five snails.