Book 2

Cure

by Robin Cook

Published 1 August 2010
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.

Foreign Body

by Robin Cook

Published 1 August 2008

Jennifer Hernandez is a fourth-year medical student at UCLA whose world is shattered during an otherwise ordinary day. While half-listening to a news report on medical tourism, where first-world citizens travel to third-world countries for surgery, she hears her beloved grandmother's name mentioned, and her own heart nearly stops: the reporter says Maria Suarez-Hernandez had died, a day after undergoing a hip replacement in New Delhi's Queen Victoria Hospital.

Maria raised Jennifer and her brothers from infancy, and their bond was unshakable. Still, the news that Maria had travelled to India is a shock to Jennifer, until she realizes it was the only viable option for the hardworking yet uninsured woman. Devastated, Jennifer takes emergency leave from school and heads to India, where relations with local officials go from sympathetic to sour as she presses for information. With the discovery of other unexplained deaths followed by hasty cremations, Jennifer reaches out to her mentor, New York City medical examiner Dr Laurie Montgomery.

Laurie, along with her husband, Dr Jack Stapleton, rushes to the younger woman's side. And as the death count grows, so do the questions, leading Laurie and Jennifer to unveil a sinister, multilayered conspiracy of global proportions.


Fever

by Robin Cook

Published 1 January 1982
Charles Martel is a brilliant cancer researcher who discovers that his own daughter is the victim of leukemia. The cause: a chemical plant conspiracy that not only promises to kill her, but will destroy him as a doctor and a man if he tries to fight it...

Contagion

by Robin Cook

Published 1 January 1996
After losing 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 in ashes. Abandoning his home and practice, Stapleton retrains as a medical examiner and relocates to a city that suits his changed perspective: the cold concrete maze of New York City.
Stapleton thinks he is past pain and past caring, but as a series of lethal illneses -- capped by a particularly deadly outbreak of a rare strain of influenza -- strikes the young, the old and the innocent, his suspicions are aroused. And when the apparent epicenter of these outbreaks is revealed to be a hospital controlled by the same for-profit giant that cannibalized his old ophthalmology practice, Stapleton fears he has stumbled upon a conspiracy of catastrophic proportions.
Solving the mystery leads to his unlikely pairing, both professionally and personally, with Terese Hagen, an art director at a hot Madison Avenue advertising firm. And as he gets closer to discovering the real explanation behind the killer contagions, he finds his life is on the line -- for there are those who will pay any price to keep the diabolical truth from being revealed.
"Contagion" anticipates some of the uncharted consequences of managed health care, in an age when even the wariest consumer may be at risk. It is a terrifying cautionary tale for the millennium, as health-care giants collide. It is Robin Cook at his unerring best.

Vector

by Robin Cook

Published 1 January 1999
New York cab driver Yuri Davydov is a disgruntled Russian immigrant ready to lash out at his adoptive nation, which he believes has denied him the American Dream. As a former technician in the Soviet Union's biological weapons system, Yuri knows how to wreak havoc in his new home. But before he executes his masterpiece of vengenance, he experiments first on selected targets. Dr Jack Stapleton begins to witness some unusual cases in his capacity as forensic pathologist in the City medical examiner's office. A Greek immigrant apparently succumbs to sudden overwhelming pneumonia, while an obese Afro-American woman collapses with acute respiratory distress. When an unexpected coincidence suggest to Jack that these seemingly unrelated deaths are actually connected murders, his colleagues and superiors remain sceptical. Meanwhile he is taking himself deeper into deadly danger - but can he reach the heart of the puzzle before Davydov and his associates unleash into the streets of New York the ultimate terror: a modern bio-weapon?

Cell

by Robin Cook

Published 4 February 2014

George Wilson, M.D., a radiology resident in Los Angeles, is about to enter a profession on the brink of an enormous paradigm shift, foreshadowing a vastly different role for doctors everywhere. A new smartphone app is being developed that is far more than a mere reference tool, rather it is a fully customizable personal physician capable of diagnosing and treating patients more efficiently than the real thing. It is called iDoc.

George's initial collision with this incredible innovation is devastating. He awakens one morning to find his fiancee dead in bed alongside him, not long after she participated in an iDoc beta test. Then several of his patients die after undergoing imaging procedures. All of them had been part of the same beta test.

Is it possible that iDoc is being subverted by hackers - and that the US government is involved in a cover-up? Despite threats to both his career and his freedom, George relentlessly seeks the truth, knowing that if he's right, the consequences could be lethal.


Crisis

by Robin Cook

Published 21 July 2006

Through a crisis of medical malpractice emerges evidence of how the medical profession itself is being harmfully transformed by the intrusion of powerful business interests. Not least is the growing prevalence of `Concierge Medicine' where public-service doctors will take on private patients for a fee.

In this enthralling story, which again features Dr Laurie Montgomery and Dr Jack Stapleton (whose long-term professional relationship here takes on a new twist), Robin Cook continues to enthral us with his deep personal insight into contemporary medicine but also provides readers with the biggest surprise ending found in any of his many bestselling novels.


The Year of the Intern

by Robin Cook

Published 1 September 1973
The nurse's voice on the phone is desperate, but young Dr. Peters, in his first weeks of internship, is only bone-tired and a little afraid. He has forgotten when he last slept. Yet he knows that in the coming hours he will have to make life-or-death decisions regarding patients, assist contemptuous surgeons in the operating room, deal with nurses who may know more than he does, cope with worried relatives and friends of the injured and ill, and pretend at all times to be what he has not yet become--a fully qualified doctor.

This book is about what happens to a young intern as he goes through the year that promises to make him into a doctor, and threatens to destroy him as a human being--

Outbreak

by Robin Cook

Published 2 July 1987
A fast-spreading disease with no cure takes the United States by storm in Robin Cook's “most harrowing medical horror story” (The New York Times).

Murder and intrigue reach epidemic proportions when a devastating plague sweeps the country. Dr. Marissa Blumenthal of the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control investigates—and soon uncovers the medical world's deadliest secret...

Charlatans

by Robin Cook

Published 22 August 2017

Charlatans is an explosive thriller from New York Times bestselling author and master of the medical thriller Robin Cook.

Noah Rothauser is the new super chief resident at Boston Memorial Hospital. Housing state-of-the-art medical facilities, it’s always been Noah’s dream to work for such an esteemed institution. But the pressures of the role become all too clear when a seemingly routine operation results in the tragic death of an otherwise healthy man. With potential malpractice suspected it falls to the newly appointed surgical doctor to investigate what happened.

Questioning those involved uncovers bitter feuds within the hospital’s surgical staff when Dr. William Mason, the egotistical, world-class surgeon who performed the operation, is quick to blame staff anaesthetist Dr. Ava London for the disastrous outcome. However Dr. London, along with the nursing staff, point the finger at the surgeon.

When two more anaesthesia-related deaths occur, Noah is forced to look closer at the impressively competent, charming, yet mysterious Dr. London, and he quickly realizes there’s far more to her than meets the eye. With his own job and integrity coming into jeopardy, Noah must decide which doctor is at fault and who he can believe – before any more lives are lost . . .


Harmful Intent

by Robin Cook

Published 2 January 1990
An anaesthetist gives a woman a normal injection during childbirth and she dies. The doctor is sued and criminally charged, but he skips bail and returns to the hospital to try and find out exactly what went wrong. On the run from the police, he uncovers a pattern of similar killings.

Seizure

by Robin Cook

Published 14 July 2003

'Like John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell, the author, a practising doctor from Florida, mines his professional life for clever plots and gruesomely convincing details' (DAILY MAIL).

A seizure has to be one of the most frightening conditions known to the medical profession, and ever since publication of COMA (basis of an outstanding film) Dr Cook has been scaring us with his visionary insight into the most alarming possibilities of his own profession.

Long recognised as the master of medical thrillers, Robin Cook once again combines a fascinating scenario with cutting-edge suspense and the bold strokes of everyday reality.


Shock

by Robin Cook

Published 1 August 2001
Cutting-edge technology and personal greed converge in this spine-tingling novel of medicine run amok. Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, students and close friends, spot a campus newspaper ad that promises to solve their financial problems: an exclusive, highly profitable fertility clinic on Boston's North Shore is looking for donors. Deborah and Joanna figure they can perform a good deed in helping infertle couples, while earning some money for themselves. Although rumours Surface of a fellow donor's unexplained disappearance, they remain undeterred. The procedures seem to go smoothly, but second thoughts and curiosity prompt the two women discover more, Stymied by the clinic's veil of secrecy, Deborah and Joanna obtain employment there to continue their probe. Working under aliases, they soon discover the horrifying true aims of Dr Windgate's research, immediately putting their lives - and their sanity - irrevocably at risk.

Terminal

by Robin Cook

Published 1 January 1920
In his new shocker, the master of the medical gothic creates a monstrous cabal - with a chokehold on mankind's dearest hope and darkest fear. From Coma to Blindsight, Robin Cook's unique blend of cutting-edge technology and timeless horror has always enthralled. But rarely have his dramatic gifts been more effectively deployed than in Terminal. Despite a blue-collar background and Irish roots mistrustful of fancy degrees, highly motivated, enormously intelligent Sean Murphy has made it as far as his third year in Harvard's combined Ph.D./M.D. program when he makes a fateful decision to take a two-month research elective at the renowned Forbes Cancer Center in Miami. Sean is eager to study firsthand the Forbes Center's remarkable results treating medulloblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer. But his decision is also due, in no small part, to a budding romance with Janet Reardon, a nurse from a privileged and prominent Boston family. Unnerved by Janet's disturbing allure - and even more, by thoughts of commitment - Sean opts for the safety and distance of the prestigious clinic. But his plans at Forbes go awry from day one. First he is denied the opportunity to work on the medulloblastoma protocol. Then, to his surprise, Janet shows up at the medical center, having accepted a job - ostensibly to further her career but actually to pursue Sean. When a disgruntled Sean appears on the verge of heading home, Janet persuades him to stay by coming up with a plan: The two of them will investigate the medulloblastoma cases surreptitiously, she taking the clinical and he the research. By the time they uncover the truth about the clinic's seemingly ground-breaking cures, the pair run afoul of thelaw, their medical colleagues, and - perhaps worst of all - the powerful, enigmatic director of the Forbes Center, Dr. Randolph Mason. Drawing closer together at every hazardous turn, Sean and Janet discover a horror beyond their worst suspicions, one that makes a mockery of the Hi

Vital Signs

by Robin Cook

Published 3 January 1991
Dr. Marissa Blumenthal's dream of becoming pregnant has turned into an obsession. A successful pediatrician, she will try any scientific method available to conceive. Until the horrible secrets of an urban clinic erupt in a nightmare of staggering proportions. 'Vintage Cook ...nonstop action!' Kirkus Reviews

Nano

by Robin Cook

Published 1 December 2012
Taking a year off from her medical studies and leaving New York City, Pia Grazdani accepts a job at Nanobots, a nanotechnology institute, where she is quickly warned not to investigate the other work done at the facility and not to ask questions about their source of funding.

Pandemic

by Robin Cook

Published 5 December 2018

Pandemic is an explosive medical thriller about a deadly virus, from New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook.

In New York City, a young, seemingly healthy woman is struck down by a respiratory attack as she heads home on the subway. By the time she arrives in Manhattan, she’s dead. She ends up on forensic pathologist Jack Stapleton’s autopsy table, which reveals surprising findings about the cause of death.

Fearing the woman’s case could be the first in a severe outbreak of a deadly airborne virus, Jack works in overdrive for a diagnosis. As the inconclusive tests come back, Jack urges his wife, and chief medical examiner, Dr. Laurie Montgomery, to sound the alarm at the mayor’s office, concerned that more cases may follow.

When further cases do occur around the city, and then in Los Angeles, London and Rome, Jack enters a race against time to discover the link that connects all the victims before it’s too late . . .

Enjoy more medical mystery thrillers with Contagion, Vector, and Genesis.


Critical

by Robin Cook

Published 1 August 2007

Angela Dawson, M.D., appears to have it all: at thirty-seven, she owns a fabulous New York City apartment, a stunning seaside house on Nantucket, and enjoys the perks of her prosperous lifestyle. With her controlling interest in three busy specialty hospitals in NYC and plans for others in Miami and Los Angeles, Angela's future looks very bright. But her climb to the top was rough, marked by a troubled childhood, a failed marriage, and the devastating blow of bankruptcy.

Then a surge of drug-resistant staph infections in all three hospitals devastates Angela's carefully constructed world. Not only do the infections result in patient deaths, but the fatalities cause stock prices to tumble. Will Angela be able to hold her empire together?

Newly married Medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are professionally and personally intrigued by these deaths. With Jack facing surgery in one of the hospitals to repair a torn ligament, Laurie can't help investigating, opening a Pandora's box of corporate intrigue that threatens not just her livelihood, but her life with Jack as well.


Intervention

by Robin Cook

Published 1 August 2009

After performing a post-mortem on a young college student who'd been recently treated by a chiropractor, Jack Stapleton, a New York City medical examiner, decides to explore alternative medicine. What makes people seek help from Eastern philosophies or even faith healers to cure their illnesses?

Meanwhile his old college friend, Shawn Doherty, a renowned archaeologist involved in a dig at St Peter's in Rome has made a startling discovery with huge ecclesiastical and medical implications.

When Kevin Murray, another old college, and now Roman Catholic Bishop of New York, gets wind of Shawn's findings he's desperate to keep them from the public and to disassociate himself from Shawn. Kevin turns to his old friend Jack to help protect this explosive secret - one with the power to change lives forever


Chromosome 6

by Robin Cook

Published 1 January 1997
A thriller from the author of CONTAGION in which an American forensic pathologists investigation into the murder of a notorious underworld figure, leads him to the jungles of equatorial Africa. First published in 1997.