Manner of Death - (A Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery Novel) by Robin Cook

About the Book

"Due to Jack Stapleton's ongoing recovery from his near-death confrontation with a serial killer, his wife Laurie Montgomery, the NYC chief medical examiner, is carrying the load both at work and at home. When she insists an underperforming pathology resident named Ryan Sullivan assist her on a suicide autopsy, Laurie unknowingly provokes an emotional storm in the trainee. So, when Ryan himself appears on the medical examiner's table days later, an apparent death by suicide, Laurie's guilt compels her to try to understand why. Jack's autopsy on the resident opens the disturbing possibility that the manner of death wasn't suicide but instead a staged homicide. But staged by whom? Laurie ignores her own professional rules and responsibilities to investigate personally who might want Ryan dead...and for what reason. Thus begins a dangerous inquiry into a fraudulent but highly lucrative cancer diagnostics company, which might just cost Laurie her life"--

Book Synopsis

In the new fast-paced medical thriller from bestselling author Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie are inadvertently drawn into a dangerous vortex of a series of homicides that have been cleverly staged as suicides.

After Dr. Jack Stapleton's near-death confrontation with a medical serial killer, his wife, NYC Chief Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery, is carrying the load both at work and at home. When Laurie insists that Dr. Ryan Sullivan--an underperforming senior pathology resident who is spending his required month at the medical examiner's office but who truly detests doing forensic autopsies--assist her on a suicide autopsy in hopes of stimulating his interest in the field, the last thing she expects is to be unwittingly drawn into a major conspiracy that puts her own life in jeopardy.

Desperate to avoid performing as many forensic autopsies as possible, Dr. Ryan Sullivan offers to participate in a research project on a series of suicides put together by one of the medical legal investigators. These suicides, like the case Ryan analyzes with Laurie, hint at some bothersome questions about their "manner of death." Although the project was more of a ruse than a serious study, Ryan surprises himself by immediately uncovering unexpected shared commonalities. Most astonishing of all, Ryan's inquiries eventually put him and Laurie at risk by leading to a nefarious cancer diagnostics company that promotes the very latest, groundbreaking cancer screening technology in a shockingly self-serving and fraudulent fashion.

Review Quotes

"Readers are in competent hands. . . . As he has done in all of his novels, Cook once again rings a warning bell to raise awareness for a new area at risk for potential abuse." --New York Journal of Books

"Like Cook's other novels, this one has plucky heroes, dastardly villains, a brisk pace, and an ending full of comeuppances. Series fans will have a good time." --Booklist

About the Author

Robin Cook, M.D., is the author of forty books and is credited with popularizing the medical thriller with his groundbreaking and wildly successful 1977 novel, Coma. His most recent bestsellers include Night Shift, Viral, Genesis, Pandemic, and Charlatans. Cook divides his time between Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.