What did I just read?! What a twist!!! This book has some paranormal elements and is quite shocking! I was on the edge of my seat and half way through, couldn’t put it down. I was a little skeptical about half way through, but then the story redeemed itself. If you’re ok with some paranormal elements, this is a great thriller to read!

Dr. Mitt Fuller is starting his residency at famed Bellevue Hospital, the fourth member of his generation to do so. He immediately starts to get disturbing visions while working at the hospital, and against all odds, all his newly assigned surgical patients die mysteriously. Mitt soon realizes his visions and the deaths are somehow connected, and he as delves deeper into his family secrets, he uncovers gruesome facts about his ancestors. Having not read a Robin Cook novel in quite some time, I was looking forward to reading Bellevue, his newest book, but was sorely disappointed. While the plot was promising, the story was excruciatingly repetitious, the dialogue unnatural and stiff (especially between Mitt and his friend, which was strangely formal and forced, and the book just doesn’t deliver. This would have been much better as a short story, but in this format it just doesn’t work I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a quick read. I enjoyed the story line from the perspective of a medical resident. The plot was a little far-fetched and unbelievable. It was ok overall.

It pains me to have to write this review. Robin Cook is widely considered to be the "master of the medical thriller". His early books are incredible works of medical suspense that are downright terrifying. As a graduate of NYU School of Medicine (before it became NYU Langone Health), I was immediately excited when I saw his newest book was titled Bellevue and would feature the legendary hospital where I spent many a clerkship. I was ecstatic when I was approved for an ARC. And then I started reading it.

It wasn't until a few chapters in that I discovered something was off. It didn't feel like a medical thriller. After a messy prologue involving a botched lobotomy on a child nearly a century ago, the first few chapters describe the start of surgical residency for Dr. Mitt Fuller, who apparent hails from a long one of esteemed doctors who practiced at Bellevue. Dr. Cook takes painstaking care to describe every detail of Mitt's first day of residency, from the moment he wakes up to every brick in the hospital building, to an introduction to the entire surgical team. While some of the descriptions evoked memories for me, I really didn't need to read every detail of the electronic medical record used or ACGME accreditation. But what really prickled were the comments about how Mitt seemed to have precognition and the ability to "read" other people's thoughts. That was when I discovered that, with Bellevue, the master of the medical thriller had decided to take a stab at writing supernatural horror.

Okay, so I decided to give it a chance and see where Dr. Cook was going with this. But by midway through Chapter 5 I was still waiting for something to happen. Other than the typical jitters of being a first-year surgical resident, there wasn't much for tension. Then things do start to happen in the second half of Chapter 5 in the form of poltergeist-type weird events. And then patients start dying and this is where the tension and suspense is supposed to start.

Except if you read the prologue, as soon as Mitt sees a blond girl you've probably already figured out what's going on. So, as Mitt muddles through the rest of the book, we're just waiting for him to catch up. I forced myself to keep reading, hoping there would be some reveal as to why Mitt of all people has special abilities and why he's being punished when it seems his ancestors were untouched, but the answers never come. Add to this that Mitt is supposed to be this amazing student with a fairly clear expectation of being a surgeon, but somehow he went through four years of Columbia medical school without ever doing a single suture, without ever having observed open heart surgery, and able to recognize a rare condition like thyroid storm but has never seen a patient die. Worse, so many things that happen to him are the result of just plain dumb decisions on his part. He's literally the guy on screen that you're yelling at, "Don't go in there!" and he goes in there anyway.

The dialogue is painfully stilted (who besides Charlie Brown says "Good Grief" in 2024), and repetitive (Mitt has to describe everything that happened in the last chapter instead of simply a one paragraph summarization), and the tension is repeatedly broken by Mitt stopping to describe architectural details. If one were to cut out all the historical descriptions and repetition, there would only be a mere 80-100 pages of story remaining.

My only hope is that, seeing as the book doesn't release until December, that this is not an uncorrected proof but an early draft, and that it's on NetGalley in order to solicit feedback on how to improve it before launch. If this is the case, I'd recommend a heavy amount of editing, making the younger characters sound more realistic, perhaps deleting the prologue to make the bizarre occurrences more mysterious, replacing the repetitive dialogue with short "Mitt summarized the night's events" statements, and making Mitt less naive and foolhardy.

I won't be sharing this review on social media out of respect for Dr. Cook.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam/G.P. Putnam's sons for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to see that Robin Cook had another book coming out and that it was set in the historic Bellevue Hospital. Dr. Mitt Fuller is a first-year surgical intern in a long line of doctors who all worked at Bellevue. Strange events happen around him in that he has a sixth sense about things. He starts to see visions and hallucinates smells that no one else can see or smell. Then all his patients die. I love medical thrillers, but this one was different in that there were supernatural elements to the story. We don't get a full explanation of what is going on until about 70% through the book. At this point it got really suspenseful and I could not put it down. I was not sure how it was going to end until the last 2% and I have to say I did not care for the ending. It was abrupt and just kind of ended and I did not like the direction he took it. Other than that, I really enjoyed the story.

Robin Cook's Bellevue, is a one of his absolute best! This book has spookiness to give the reader nightmares, but his knowledge of the medical field makes the story one that will keep the reader up at night. The descriptive elements of this book are such that the reader will feel like they are right there in the middle of the story as it takes place, If you haven't read a Robin Cook book before, do yourself a favor a pick this book up, you will be ensnared from the moment you start to the minute you finish!

The best part of this book was the paranormal story; however, it didn’t get to that part until 80%. Once he finally went into the abandoned hospital, I couldn’t put it down.

4.75 stars
Good story with good pace Believable characters with good story line
Listen to book and read fast. Thought one character would have ended differently but not disappointed
Ending well done

The first 70% of this book feels like we are following a tired overworked intern, which makes him at point an unreliable narrator. That 70% feels like Groundhog Day, it’s repetitive and its focus on surgery. Surprisingly, while it gets medical it’s easy to digest. I wish there would have been MORE of the spooky aspect of this story. While we do live a doctors worst nightmare, the horror elements are minimal which might work for some. The last 30% of this book was my favorite it picked up and the end was chef kisses. Felt like a popcorn thriller and I could really envision it in my head. Review out on Fable, Lemon8 and GoodReads

I have fond memories of stumbling upon Robin Cook in my local library when I was a kid and first able to navigate the upstairs (the adult section) alone. I delighted in titles like Coma and Mindbend and Fever. The mix of medicine, science, and horror was heady stuff to a kid, and I loved the pacing and high creepy factor. I kept periodically coming back to his books as I got older, but haven't actually read one in some time so when I saw the newest title and that it encompassed not only one of the most famous psychiatric hospitals of all time, but promised paranormal elements as well, I was highly intrigued. I wasn't used to him finding his chills in anything other than straight-up (or even a-bit-out-there) science, so was curious to see how this would play out, and eagerly requested the book.

I found the opening chapters every bit as enjoyable as I remembered his writing to be, full of detail and gore and medicine-gone-wrong. Unfortunately, as the story progressed and things got ever weirder, I started to lose interest a little - only to find myself pulled back in as the deaths started piling up. Up and down, up and down - the story kept fluctuating between what I expected (and enjoy) from Cook, and this new paranormal ground he seemed intent on traversing, which I found less compelling as it didn't feel quite organic. But the resolution here is where things really jumped the shark for me. It felt altogether rushed, like things stopped rather than ended in a satisfying conclusive way. I'm not necessarily averse to the *actual* end, but to the exceptionally abrupt way we got there. After all the detail and build up, it felt hurried and awkward, like someone yelled "pencils down!" and all he could do was furiously type out the last 12 words...

All in all this was a lot less satisfying than I expected. Not enough to alter my opinion or the likelihood of picking up the next new Robin Cook, but enough that it has me hoping he'll stick to more solid medical/scientific ground and pass on the paranormal...

I was thrilled when Net Galley notified me that I would be receiving an advanced review copy of Robin Cook's newest medical thriller. Bellevue will be published on December 4, 2024 and while the plot is different from his other novels, I found it entertaining and had a few laughs over the ending.

I could tell fairly quickly that the plot was not going to be about the usual problems in the practice of medicine. Dr. Mitt Fuller's visions were bizarre. He both saw and smelled visions whenever he passed certain places in the Bellevue Hospital district. I initially thought that Mitt was having psychiatric issues and that the book would be about that. It wasn't. However, these visions were impeding his ability to perform the duties of his residency and he had one problem after another. All seven of the patients assigned to him died. Because the series has always been about issues in medicine, I thought that maybe there was a link to these deaths that led back to Mitt. There wasn't. SPOILER ALERT! Toward the end of the book Mitt meets a lady who is in charge of housekeeping. She tells him that she has also seen the "ghosts" and offers to take him to the old Psychopathic Hospital where the ghosts reside and where there are medical records dating back 150 years in the Psychopathic Hospital's history that may give him the raison d'être for his visions. Yes, this is a ghost story!

The plot was intense and fast paced. I really thought that it was all about why those seven patients died but the truth was bizarre. The ending was both surprising and bizarre but I could not stop laughing for hours after finishing the book. It is definitely worth reading.

Robin Cook is the master of medical thrillers and he departs a bit from the standard genre by making this also a supernatural ghost story. “Bellevue,” the hospital, has its own real history of three centuries of medical advances as well as medical horrors, most of the notoriety coming from the old mental hospital (the Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital — shuttered since 1984), America’s version of the UK’s Bedlam Hospital.

Our protagonist is likable Dr. Mitt Fuller, a first year surgical resident whose direct ancestors were once famous Bellevue physicians. Just being a first year intern carries its own sleep-deprived, overworked dangers — now add a supernatural element that is killing every one of Dr. Fuller’s patients. In addition, Mitt knows he has a sixth sense of sorts (prognostication), but now he’s having hallucinations of past maimed patients as he does his rounds. Terrified of his associated 100% mortality rate and unable to share his visions, Mitt is one confused puppy. We know he’s totally innocent, but it won’t be long before he’s either a suspect in the unexplained fatalities or nicknamed and shunned as “Dr. Death”.

As in his usual thrillers, Cook ratchets up the tension steadily. If you’re a long time Cook fan (as I am), the ending is somewhat a surprise, not a nearly wrapped up mystery as you might expect. Yet, still a great book from a writer you can count on. 4 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Dark and bloodshot eyes, but no eye colors are mentioned.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO

Thank you to Penguin/Putnam and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

“Bellevue” by Robin Cook is the latest medical thriller by this author. I was looking forward to this book because I have always been intrigued by Bellevue Hospital and its imposing architecture. I have enjoyed many of this authors books in the past but this one just didn’t work for me. I think the descriptions of the medical procedures were a bit too much for me, as well as the addition of the supernatural elements which made it hard for me to connect to the story. I am sure I will be an outlier here and those who enjoy paranormal medical thrillers will enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Robin Cook adds another title to his vast list of medical thrillers. In this book he weaves in a bit of the occult and supernatural which turned me off a bit, I much prefer the medical story. He puts you in the shoes of the resident; the sheer exhaustion of being 'on' and 'on call' for 24 hours at a time. The varied medical emergencies and situations that one deals with on a daily basis. You truly feel that you are in the hospital with him. Recommended for public libraries

My Mother and I have always had Robin Cook in common. I was thrilled to see this pop up.

I enjoyed the first half of the book. Spooky Bellevue is always a good setting and it did not disappoint. The medical descriptions are always on point.

Once the supernatural elements showed up, it lost something for me.

I've always enjoyed Robin Cook's novels. I love how his medical thrillers are so realistic and detailed. Bellevue is no exception. However, there is a paranormal element to this story that was quite unexpected. The story itself is rich with medical jargon and practice, leaving me intrigued. The ending, though, fell quite flat, and felt extremely rushed and choppy. Great build up that led to much disappointment.

Robin Cook again creates an engaging "medical" mystery. All of his skills in writing medical mysteries was in the book. I read his work because I like the genre and the writing at the level that an educated reader and be pulled into the story. The fact the the stories are in a way formulaic is not a a weakness, as it is with other writers. The writing is so good and diverse in how it follows the basic formula that it escapes the traps other writers fall into. He does not use "action" sequences to cover up for lack of story meat. I must say that the core of the story not being the medical mystery was a small downside for me. It is the medical mystery that I was hoping for. The quality of the writing saved that from being a negative. I did find the historical elements of the Bellevue story very interesting and informative. I do not think the story would have worked as well with a different locale that did not have the same history, stories and myths. Looking forward to Cook's next book.

This book had me turning the pages and staying up past my bedtime! Dr. Fuller is just starting his residency at the infamous Bellevue hospital. Dr. Fuller is legacy. He had four relatives that were physicians at Bellevue before him. As he starts his first call night, he starts to see a vision in the hallway of the girl with a surgical instrument and blood on her vintage dress. What happens next is a page turner. Such a awesome read!!!! Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to preview this book.

I was quite excited to see Bellevue by Robin Cook and doubly glad that Netgalley gave me the ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. I've always loved Robin Cook's medical thrillers. Bellevue was an interesting thriller. Though the mystery was not so much about the medical area, I still learnt a lot of medical terms. The shocking ending was well done, though I normally like happy endings.

Michael “Mitt” Fuller is a first year surgical resident (what they used to call an intern, but I learned from this book that everyone is a resident now) at NYU med school’s program and is assigned to Bellevue, the three hundred year old, famed hospital in New York City. He is following in the footsteps of four earlier generations of Fullers at the historic hospital, three other surgeons and one psychiatrist. He also has a secret, a sort of “sixth sense” which he uses to his advantage is his practice.

He finds that sense working when he starts at Bellevue when his patients begin to die, at a rate too high to be merely coincidental. He struggles to determine what is happening while also exploring his ancestors roots at the hospital and dealing with the stressors of being a first-year resident. Then he begins to have visions and he finds himself drawn to the long-closed Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital. What secrets lie within.

I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Cook does a great job describing the tough life of a first year resident and I was quite interested in the history of Bellevue, which is so famous, it’s really shorthand for any mental institution (or it used to be…I guess I’m old.). I thought the book fell off a bit when it came to the supernatural elements, though I appreciated the ending. I definitely kept turning the pages.