NANO

A medical/scientific thriller from Cook (Vital Signs, 1991, etc.).

Nanotechnology operates at the one-billionth of a meter level, and at such a scale, the tiniest details matter. In things medical, nanobots can swarm inside your body and fix all sorts of things—but then, as anyone who recalls the old Raquel Welch vehicle Fantastic Voyage will immediately twig, there are dangers attendant. Enter sexy Pia Grazdani, who last turned up in Cook’s Death Benefit (2011) and who is now taking her medical education in new directions as a researcher at Nano LLC, a think-tank-ish lab out west. There are sequelae attendant from that last book, too, not least of them a classmate with a nasty head wound, which, given that antibiotics and “multiple surgical debridements” haven’t done much good, has prompted Pia to seek teeny, tiny cures. Her new boss is both dreamy and creepy, and he’s nothing but one big wolf whistle whenever he’s around her. But that’s not so often, since he’s always jetting off somewhere or another to cut deals with sometimes shadowy figures—and by the end of the story, Cook has involved Mafiosi from Eastern Europe, Chinese Olympic officials, and various and sundry industrial espionage types. Can Pia discover what she needs to without stumbling into some trade secret and getting herself killed in the bargain? Will she wind up “in a drugged state” in some petro-tycoon’s harem? Will Zachary Berman ever shake his hangover and become the good guy we know he can be?

A by-the-numbers thriller with no surprises but with the usual satisfactions.