New York City medical examiner Laurie Montgomery after a lengthy family furlough and some of her colleagues are wondering if she still has the right stuff. Her coworkers are especially skeptical about her conclusions about the mysterious death of a CIA agent, but Markham knows that she has one office colleague: her medical examiner husband Jack Stapleton. Together they race down dangerous roads that others don't even imagine. A fast-paced biotech espionage thriller. (Hand-selling tip: No ER genius has better hospital credentials than Robin Cook: He's been creating heart-pounding novels of medical intrigue since 1972.)
Publishers Weekly
Organized crime, international espionage, and kidnapping only mildly enliven Cook's methodical ninth medical thriller featuring husband-and-wife medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton (after Intervention). Laurie's first case back in the Manhattan medical examiner's office, after giving birth to the couple's firstborn, John "JJ" Junior, appears to be a routine case of death by natural causes. But Laurie suspects otherwise, and her dogged investigation uncovers a diabolical poisoning and a plot involving the Mafia and rival Japanese gangsters laundering money for a shady start-up firm promoting stem-cell research. To deter Laurie's prying, the thugs snatch JJ, and suddenly the intrigue gets very personal. Cook provides an interesting study of the strange bedfellows that the biotech business and the mob might make, but he telegraphs all his plot twists so far in advance that there's little suspense other than how quickly Laurie will tip to them. Even devoted Cook fans may find that the crimes and subterfuges are resolved too swiftly and perfunctorily. (Aug.)
Library Journal
Cook's 30th novel follows Intervention (2009), also available from Recorded Books/Penguin Audio and read by multiple Audie Award winner George Guidall. Medical forensics, intrigue, Japanese yakuza and the American mafia, and kidnap consultants all figure into this extraordinary fictional treatise on international business, stem-cell research, and organized crime. Listeners will feel compelled to look further into the potential health impacts of pluripotent stem cell (iPS) research; they can visit Cook's official website, robincookmd.com, for his take on the profits available to those who obtain iPS patents. Guidall masterfully reads this well-researched, expertly plotted thriller; highly recommended. ["A fascinating tale that never slows down," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Putnam hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 6/25/10.—Ed.]—Cliff Glaviano, formerly with Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH
