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A Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery Novel Series

Robin Cook
Manner of Death by Robin Cook
Latest in the Series

Manner of Death

Book 14
Paperback $19

A Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery Novel Series : Titles in Order

Book 14
In this fast-paced medical mystery-thriller from New York Times bestselling author Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie must determine the manner of death after a pathology resident’s suspicious suicide.

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 13
In this exhilarating new medical mystery-thriller by Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie are lured into the dark underbelly of hospital dangers when an internist is murdered.

Colleagues-turned-spouses Dr. Laurie Montgomery and Dr. Jack Stapleton already have their plates full between demanding forensic pathology work and family pressures. The last thing they need is the sudden death of a colleague. Yet when Laurie’s apparently vital and healthy longtime friend Dr. Sue Passero dies mysteriously in the hopsital parking garage, an autopsy is required, and it falls uncomfortably under Laurie’s purview as the chief medical examiner. So when Laurie asks Jack to take special care with the case, he can hardly refuse.

With his curiosity sparked by an inconclusive autopsy, the indefatigable Jack is compelled to resolve the case at hand, and sets out to investigate on-site at Manhattan Memorial Hospital, even though it means blatantly defying the Office of Chief Medical Examiner’s rules. What started out as an inquiry into Sue’s tragic passing soon turns into a deadly and dangerous chess game between Jack and the clever and deranged killer, who might just administer another lethal blow if Jack isn’t careful.
Book 12
An ancestry database holds the key to catching a killer in this explosive medical thriller from New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook.

When the body of social worker Kera Jacobsen shows up on Chief New York City Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery’s autopsy table, it appears she was the victim of a drug overdose. But for Laurie and her new pathology resident, the brilliant Dr. Aria Nichols, little things aren’t adding up. Kera’s family and friends swear she never touched drugs. Administrators from the hospital where Kera worked insist the case be shrouded in silence. And although Kera was ten weeks pregnant, nobody knows who the father was–or what he might now about Kera’s final moments alive.

With Laurie temporarily sidelined by a medical emergency, impulsive Aria turns to a controversial new technique: collaborating with experts at a start-up ancestry website to trace the fetus’s DNA in the hopes of identifying the mystery father. But when Kera’s fellow social worker is murdered, it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want Kera’s secrets to come to light . . . and if Aria gets any nearer to the truth, she and Laurie might find themselves a killer’s next targets.
Book 11
New York Times #1-bestselling author Robin Cook takes on the cutting-edge world of gene modification in this pulse-pounding medical thriller.

When a young, seemingly healthy woman collapses suddenly on a New York City subway car and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is chalked up to a virulent strain of influenza. That is, until she ends up on veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton’s autopsy table, where Jack discovers some striking anomalies: First, that the young woman has had a heart transplant, and second, that her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart.

After two other victims succumb to a similar rapid death, Jack fears the city is facing an unprecedented pandemic. But the facts aren’t adding up, and now Jack must race against the clock to determine what kind of virus can wreak such terrifying havoc. But when his investigation leads him into the fascinating realm of CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing biotechnology that allows animal DNA to be inserted into living human cells, he’ll uncover the dark underbelly of the organ-transplant market…and come face-to-face with a megalomaniacal businessman willing to risk human lives to fulfill his dreams of conquering a lucrative new medical frontier. And if Jack’s not careful, the next life lost might be his own…
Book 10
With her son’s cancer in remission, NYC medical examiner Laurie Montgomery returns to work—and finds her first case back to be a dangerous puzzle in this compelling mystery by the bestselling “master of the medical thriller.” (The New York Times)

The investigation into the shocking death of CIA agent Kevin Markham is a professional challenge for Dr. Laurie Montgomery, and it has her colleagues wondering if she still has what it takes after so much time away. 

Markham’s autopsy results are inconclusive, and though it appears he’s been poisoned, toxiccology fails to corroborate Laurie’s suspicions. While her coworkers doubt her assassination theory, her determination wins over her husband, fellow medical examiner Jack Stapleton, and together they discover associations to a large pharmaceutical company and several biomedical start-ups dealing with stem-cell research. 

Laurie and Jack must race to connect the dots before they are consumed in a dangerous game of biotech espionage.
Book 9
New York Times bestselling author Robin Cook returns with another ripped-from-the-headlines medical thriller, as medical detective Jack Stapleton investigates the promises—and deadly risks—of alternative medicine and is led deep into the heart of a religious conspiracy…

Medical examiners and husband-and-wife pair Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery are consumed with worry for their young son, who has been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer. But, as always, Jack turns to his work for solace; after performing a postmortem on a promising young woman who had recently been treated by a chiropractor, he begins researching alternative medicine as a way to avoid obsessing about his child’s illness.

Meanwhile, Jack’s college buddy, a renowned archaeologist and biblical scholar, makes a spectacular find at a souk in Cairo: an ancient codex, whose contents may vault him to international fame—and jeopardize the very nature of papal infallibility. And the bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, another former classmate, turns to Jack to help safeguard an explosive secret, one with the power to change lives forever…
Book 8
In this chilling novel from the bestselling “master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times), NYC medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton rush to India to help a UCLA student investigating medical tourism—and a sinister global conspiracy.

Devastated by the news that her beloved granmother has died after hip surgery in New Delhi, UCLA medical student Jennifer Hernandez flies to India, desperate for answers. Jennifer’s grandmother appears to be a victim of medical tourism—uninsured first-world citizens traveling to third-world countries for more affordable surgery. With revelations of other unexplained deaths and pressure from Indian hospital officials for a hasty cremation, Jennifer reaches out to her mentor, New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery.

Laurie, along with her husband, Dr. Jack Stapleton, rush to Jennifer’s side, only to discover a sophisticated medical facility with little margin for error. But as the death count grows, so do the questions, leading Laurie and Jennifer to unveil a multilayered conspiracy of global proportions.
Book 7
New York City medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton return in this stunning novel from the “master of the medical thriller” (New York Times)—a ripped-from-the-headlines tale of an innovative doctor’s dangerous downward spiral.

After a rough climb to the top, doctor and businesswoman Angela Dawson appears to have it all: a start-up—Angels Healthcare—that’s about to go public, and a controlling interest in three busy specialist hospitals in New York City as well as plans for others in Miami and Los Angeles. But then a surge of drug-resistant staph infections in all three hospitals devastated her carefully constructed world…

NYC medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are naturally intrigued by the uptick in staph-related post-procedure deaths at these hospitals. Aside from their professional curiosity, there’s a personal stake as well: Jack is facing surgery to repair a torn ACL at Angels Orthopedic Hospital.

Despite Jack’s protests, Laurie can’t help investigating—thus opening a Pandora’s box of corporate intrigue that threatens not just her livelihood, but both of their lives as well.
Book 6
The inventor of the medical thriller shows the profession’s dark side: the terrifying story of a doctor who is sucked into the maelstrom of the current medical malpractice crisis.

When Boston-based Dr. Craig Bowman is served with a summons for medical negligence, he’s shocked, enraged, and more than a little humiliated. A devoted physician who has endured grueling years of training and worked continuously in the service of others, he is now a partner in an exclusive concierge medical practice. No longer forced to see more and more patients while spending less and less time with each one just to keep his office door open, he provides the kind of medical care he has been prepared to do, lavishing twenty-four-hour availability and personalized attention on his handpicked patients. And at last he is earning a significant income, no longer facing decreased reimbursements from insurance companies. But this idyllic situation comes to a grinding halt one sunny afternoon—and things get much, much worse.

Enter Dr. Jack Stapleton, a medical examiner in New York City and Bowman’s brother-in-law: Jack’s sister Alexis—now Bowman’s estranged wife—begs for his help as her husband’s trial drags on. Jack agrees to travel to Boston to offer his forensic services and expert-witness experience to Craig’s beleaguered defense attorney. But when Jack’s irreverent suggestion to exhume the corpse and thereby disprove the alleged malpractice is taken seriously, he opens a Pandora’s box of trouble. As Craig’s life and career are put on the line, Jack is on the verge of making a most unwelcome discovery, of tremendous legal and medical significance—and there are people who will do anything to keep him from learning the truth.
Book 5
With his signature blend of suspense and science, Robin Cook delivers an electrifying page-turner that delves into the murky ethics of developing genomic medicine and modern-day health care…
 
As her relationship with Dr. Jack Stapleton begins to unravel, Dr. Laurie Montgomery starts investigating the inexplicable deaths of young, healthy people after successful routine surgery. She discovers that the deaths might be intentional—the work of a remarkably clever serial killer with a shocking motive. And then Laurie is hit with more devastating news: she might be carrying the genetic marker for breast cancer. As the need for answers becomes more urgent, Laurie is pulled into the nightmare as a potential victim herself. With time winding down, she and Jack must put aside the tensions between them in a race to connect the dots—and save Laurie’s life…
Book 4
Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery must race against the clock to prevent an unthinkable catastrophe in this “frightening” (Publishers Weekly) novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author hailed as “the master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times).
 
Experts do not question whether a bio-terrorism event will occur in the United States, only when. . . .

New York City cab driver Yuri Davydov is an angry, disillusioned Russian émigré poised to lash out at the adoptive nation he believes has denied him the American Dream. A former technician for the vast Soviet biological weapons system, Yuri possesses the technical knowledge to carry out his vengeance on a horrific scale, especially after teaming up with a pair of far-right survivalists who share his abhorrence of the United States government.
 
Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery are confronted with two seemingly disparate cases in their work as forensic pathologists in the city’s medical examiner’s office. They hardly suspect that the deaths could be related, but soon they begin to connect the dots, and the question then becomes whether or not they will solve the puzzle before Yuri and his comrades unleash the ultimate terror: a modern bioweapon.
Book 3
“Master of the medical thriller.”—The New York Times

In his most prophetic thriller yet, Robin Cook goes behind the headlines on cloning and genetic manipulation, blending fact with fiction in this terrifying bestseller.

In the jungles of equatorial Africa, a biotechnology giant has taken transplant surgery and animal research to a new level—where one mistake could bridge the evolutionary gap between man and ape and forever change the genetic map of our existence.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery are working on a seemingly unrelated murder of a mobster, only to find some very odd things once their victim is on the autopsy table…
Book 2
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sinister act of bioterrorism spreads a deadly epidemic across America in this “spine-tingling” (Denver Post) novel from the “master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times).
 
After he loses first his midwestern ophthalmology practice to a for-profit medical giant and then his family to a commuter airline tragedy, Dr. John Stapleton’s life is transformed to ashes. Feeling less the golden boy than a jaded cynic, Stapleton retrains in forensic pathology and relocates to find an uneasy niche for himself that suits his changed perspective: the cold, indifferent, concrete maze of New York.
 
Stapleton thinks he is past pain and past caring, but as a series if virulent and extremely lethal illnesses—capped by a particularly deadly outbreak of a rare strain of influenza—strikes the young, the old, and the innocent, his suspicions are aroused. When the apparent epicenters of these outbreaks are revealed to be hospitals and clinics controlled by the same for-profit giants that cannibalized his old ophthalmology practice, Stapleton fears he has stumbled upon a diabolic conspiracy of catastrophic proportions: Could the for-profit giant be engaged in the systemic elimination of its more costly subscribers?
 
Getting to the truth leads to Stapleton’s unlikely pairing—both professionally and personally—with Terese Hagen, an art director at a hot Madison Avenue advertising firm. Together they discover that the real explanation behind the killer contagions is even more Machiavellian than could be imagined.
Book 1
From the New York Times bestselling master of medical thrillers comes a shocking story of medical conspiracy.

Today, organ transplants are common miracles of science. But if the supply cannot meet the demand, how far will people go to find donors? Dr. Laurie Montgomery, a forensic pathologist, learns the terrifying answer when she investigates a series of fatal “overdose” of young professionals. Some crimes are beyond comprehension. But seeing is believing…

With pulse-pounding suspense and a thought-provoking exploration of medical ethics, this gripping tale takes readers on a thrilling journey through the dark side of modern medicine.

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