Pandemic

Pandemic is Robin Cook's 36th medical mystery novel. The plot was inspired by a 2012 article in Science magazine concerning bacterial immunity. In his Preface the author stated that the article also introduced the world to a biologically active chimeric molecule called CRISPR/CAS9.  This molecule can be custom-tailored to alter genes in plants and animals.  With CRISPR/CAS9, any gene whose sequence is known can be replaced, removed, turned on and turned off and this can be done by anyone, even a high schooler in his garage. You don't need to be a molecular biologist to know how to do this. Therein lies one of the dangers. Another danger is that this technology is unregulated.

The story opens with a woman suddenly dying on a New York subway. Medical Examiner Jack Stapleton performs her autopsy and is astonished to find that she had a recent heart transplant but was not on any immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the heart. Her DNA also matched the DNA of the transplanted heart which would be impossible unless it came from a twin. A lung virus is the expected cause of death and the woman's short period of illness is reminiscent of the 1918 flu epidemic.

With troubles at home that he wants to avoid, Stapleton throws himself into this case. He tries to identify the woman by visiting a  tattoo parlor to determine the origin of her unusual tattoo of a puzzle piece with the name Helen on it. He locates the hospital that performed her transplant and is led to a Chinese billionaire who owns a hospital and research facility that uses CRISPR/CAS9. Then, a second woman ends up in his morgue with a puzzle piece tattoo with the name Carol in the middle.

I loved this book. It was fast paced and the search to identify the cause of death was interesting. When the plot came to what the Chinese billionaire was doing with his transplant business, I was astonished that anyone would even think about doing what he was doing. I won't be a spoiler here but it was shocking.

The relationship between the two main characters, Jack Stapleton and his wife Laurie Montgomery, was quite different from prior novels. Laurie is now Jack's boss. She has no problem yelling at him. He cannot handle it though. Jack is usually the dominant person in this relationship and this mixup feels awkward. To make things worse, they have a new child who was just diagnosed as being autistic. I am not sure where these two characters go from here. Is this 11th book featuring them the last one?

4 out of 5 stars.