(M.J.E. / Book Listings / Thrillers / Cook)
Robin COOK
Complete listing
Robin Cook: U.S.A., 1940 - [a]
The Year of the Intern 1972
Coma 1977
Sphinx 1979
Brain 1981
Fever 1982
Godplayer 1983
Mindbend 1985
Outbreak [b] 1987
Mortal Fear 1988
Mutation 1989
Harmful Intent 1990
Vital Signs [b] 1991
Blindsight [c] 1992
Fatal Cure 1993
Terminal 1993
Acceptable Risk 1994
Contagion [c] 1995
Chromosome 6 [c] 1996
Invasion 1997
Toxin 1998
Vector [c] 1999
Abduction 2000
Shock due in 2001
Notes
[a] Robin Cook: My information about this author is extremely meagre: my
only sources are my own copies of the books and The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction, second edition, by John Clute and Peter Nicholls (p. 262).
I have no reason to believe the above listing is not complete. Not only
are they the only books I've seen by Cook in the bookshops, but they are the
only titles I've seen listed anywhere on the Internet, other than titles I know
to be mistakenly attributed to Robin Cook, as detailed below.
The Clute/Nicholls volume is usually complete in its listings: that is,
complete for science-fiction or fantasy, or work at least slightly related, as
it omits titles which are not even remotely related to science-fiction or
fantasy; yet it inexplicably omits several titles in its entry for Cook, and
they are no less (or no more) science-fiction than the titles it does list.
Another writer called Robin Cook, unrelated to the one covered on this
page, needs to be discussed here, simply to avoid confusion about novels by the
two Robin Cooks which I myself fell into at one stage. I know very little about
him, and have neither a particular interest in him nor a complete listing of his
books, so I cannot give full information about him or his work. In the
following discussion, I will refer to the two authors as "Robin Cook A" (the
medical writer this page is about) or "Robin Cook B" (the little-known writer
whose works are sometimes confused with those of Robin Cook A).
Besides the titles listed above, you may come across other books with the
name "Robin Cook" on them in second-hand book-shops, or you may see them listed
on web sites, sometimes together with the titles given above, by web writers who
obviously believe the titles are all by the same author (as I did myself to
begin with). However, I believe my listing for Robin Cook A, as given above, is
complete, and so if you come across any other Robin Cook novels, I believe they
are probably by Robin Cook B. I've researched this a bit on the Internet, as
well as in the above-mentioned Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John
Clute and Peter Nicholls, trying to sort out the confusion, and I feel very sure
of my facts now. (If you are not interested in Robin Cook B or his works, you
can skip the rest of this note and go back to the listing for
Robin Cook A; if you are interested in Robin Cook B, the following may
interest you.)
According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (p. 262), Robin
Cook B is a British author born in 1931, and A State of Denmark is the
last book he wrote under his real name, after which be began writing as Derek
Raymond, a move he took at a time when his career was flagging, and when his own
name was overshadowed by Robin Cook A. According to an Internet listing of his
works which I found
(http://digilander.iol.it/gialloweb/biblio/raymond.htm),
he lived from 1931 to 1994, and his real name was Robert William Arthur Cook.
This name is not mentioned in the Clute/Nicholls reference, which simply names
him as Robin Cook. This surprises me, considering that it is normally attentive
to such details. Or could the web site be mistaken? I don't know. Further
confusing matters, I saw another web site that gave Robin Cook A's full name as
Robert William Arthur Cook; but more sites attribute the name to Robin Cook B,
so I think that this name probably belongs to Robin Cook B, not A.
The titles you are most likely to find confused with Robin Cook A's work
are:
Public Parts and Private Places: I came across a mention of this
title in a listing of titles by Robin Cook A somewhere, probably on the
Internet, but I can't find it again now; however, the Italian site mentioned
above satisfies me that this novel is by Robin Cook B - it carries a footnote in
Italian which I can't read fully, but which obviously distinguishes explicitly
between the two Robin Cooks; and other references, particularly web sites
devoted to Gay and Lesbian literature, have mentioned the title in the same
listings as other titles by Robin Cook B: these are not explicitly attributed to
the same Robin Cook, but the context seems to make it plain that they are. Some
other sources do mention The Year of the Intern as being Robin Cook A's
first novel, which obviously would rule out Public Parts and Private
Places, which was written earlier still.
A State of Denmark (in full, A State of Denmark, or A Warning to
the Incurious): There is actually a chance you might find this book in
second-hand book-shops, as I did myself once and bought it, believing it to
be by Robin Cook A, whose works I collect. (I don't collect the works of Robin
Cook B.) Even well-known authors have a few odd or little-known works, and
these obscure works tend to be different in character from the author's
well-known works - so it seemed possible that this one was by the Robin Cook I
was interested in, even though it was obviously a different kind of novel. In
fact, I believed it was by him for quite a few years, although I now know it is
not. I still haven't read it, but the least glance shows it to be a totally
different kind of book which could not in all probability be by the same author.
(The obscure books by some authors which I referred to as being different in
character from their well-known works are rarely as different as this book
appears to be. But even without that to support my point, I am totally
satisfied from various sources that this book is by Robin Cook B.)
I will list here the titles by Robin Cook B that I know of, together with
their year of publication, with no implication that it is a fully accurate or
complete listing. I have read none of them, and have a copy of only one of
them, so I do not know anything at all about the books or their author.
My source for this can be found (in Italian only) at http://digilander.iol.it/gialloweb/biblio/raymond.htm.
Novels
Crust on its Uppers 1962
Bombe Surprise 1963
The Legacy of the Stiff Upper Lip 1966
Public Parts and Private Places 1967 U.K.
Published in U.S. as "Private Parts in Public Places" 1969
A State of Denmark, or A Warning
to the Incurious 1970
The Tenants of Dirt Street 1971
Le Soleil Qui S'Eteint 1982
Cauchemar Dans La Rue 1988
The Hidden Files 1992
Not Till the Red Fog Rises 1994
Factory series
He Died With His Eyes Open 1984
The Devil's Home on Leave 1985
How the Dead Live 1986
I Was Dora Suarez 1990
Dead Man Upright 1993
Short Stories
Every Day Is a Day in August 1989 - in "New Crimes", edited by Maxim Jakubowski
Changeless Susan 1992 - in "Constable New Crimes I", edited by Maxim Jakubowski
Brand New Deal 1994 - in "London Noir"
Nightmare in the Street 1996 - in "Fresh Blood", edited by Mike Ripley and Maxim Jakubowski
And, finally (I cannot guess at a translation for this, for I do not speak Italian, and I provide this only on an "as is" basis for the sake of completeness):
Dischi
Dora Suarez Clawfist 1993
Si tratta della lettura, fatta dallo stesso Raymond, di brani scelti da "I Was Dora Suarez", con la musica di James Johnston e Terry Edwards, rispettivamente chitarrista e sassofonista del gruppo inglese Gallon Drunk.
[Back to top of listing]
[b] Outbreak and Vital Signs: Robin Cook's novels are
independent of each other, and never form what could be seen as a recognizable
series; but some of them do use the same characters as other books. The
novels marked "[b]" feature Marissa Blumenthal and Cyrill Dubchek as the
central characters. [Back to Outbreak]
[c] Blindsight, Contagion, Chromosome 6, and
Vector: The novels marked "[c]" feature Laurie Montgomery as one of
the central characters. Except for Blindsight, they also feature Jack
Stapleton. [Back to Blindsight]
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This page created on Sunday, 5 November, 2000;
last modified on Friday, 9 February, 2001.