Spasm

Robin Cook's latest medical thriller Spasm was recently published on December 9, 2025. It is his 42nd novel to date and the 15th novel featuring medical examiners Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery. The medical mystery to be solved in this novel involves prions, ie, proteins and infections, that cause dementia symptoms and muscle spasms. 

The publisher's summary:

When Laurie Montgomery temporarily steps down from her position as Chief Medical Examiner, she and Jack find themselves uncharacteristically free for a couple of weeks. And the timing couldn’t be better when they receive a call from Jack’s former medical school classmate, Robert Neilson, who is the sole family practitioner in Essex Falls, an idyllic town tucked away in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. Serving also as the Hamilton County coroner, Dr. Neilson is in over his head trying to explain the sudden death of a young, healthy pest control worker on top of an outbreak of rapidly progressive Alzheimer’s-like cases, and he pleads with Jack and Laurie to come lend a professional hand. Unable to resist a good mystery and a vacation in one, Laurie and Jack agree to help and head upstate.

Essex Falls is beautiful enough and their accommodations are even better than they imagined. But they soon learn the town has suffered a major economic and social setback, which has shaken its residents to their cores. When the body of the pest control worker disappears without a trace just prior to an autopsy, Jack’s penchant for solving forensic conundrums launches him into a full-scale investigation that uncovers the most frightening modus operandi of his career so far.

I am pleased that this novel does not involve Laurie being her husband Jack’s boss. I don't think that those stories were as successful as others. In Spasm, they are once again working together to solve a death investigation. It is nice that they are on a vacation of sorts, a working one. The usual stress of working at the New York Medical Examiner Office is removed. What the reader gets is just the mystery, which is all I am ever interested in. 

The investigation was different from earlier novels. In the past, Cook had his characters searching for a cause of death. In Spasm, Jack and his friend Bob Neilson know pretty quickly that prions are the reason two people died and several others developed alzheimer-related symptoms and died shortly thereafter. What Jack doesn't know is how the people of Essex Falls are getting prion infections. It's not an airborne infection. The investigation in this story is into how the prions were released in Essex Falls and how did the corpse of a pest control worker and local militiaman Ethan Jameson disappear from Dr. Neilson's morgue. While the intensity of the investigation is decreased, there is still a mystery to resolve. I read the book in one sitting. It was not any less riveting for me because the medical investigation was not a howdunnit but a whodunnit.

The story is timely. Ethan Jameson was the president of a local militia in Essex Falls. His group, the Diehard Patriots, are a ragtag group of seventeen men who mainly drink beer and shoot off their rifles in the early hours of the night when most people are asleep.  However, on this particular week Ethan hired four Russian men to train them in combat maneuvers. The Russians slipped into the U.S. from Canada fairly easily. They walked across the border. Two of these men were more interested in brewing beer than teaching the Diehard Patriots. Yes, it was not beer they were brewing but a biological weapon.

I enjoyed this book and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Bellevue

I was thrilled when Net Galley announced that I would be receiving an advanced review copy of Robin Cook's newest medical thriller. Bellevue will be published on December 4, 2024 and while the plot is different from his other novels, I found it entertaining and had a few laughs over the ending.

The publisher's summary:

Twenty-four-year-old Michael “Mitt” Fuller starts his surgical residency with great anticipation at the nearly three-hundred-year-old, iconic Bellevue Hospital, following in the footsteps of four previous, celebrated Fuller generations. The pressure is on for this newly minted doctor, and to his advantage he’s always had a secret sixth sense, a sensitivity to the nonphysical, which gradually plays a progressive role, especially as one patient after another assigned to his care begin to die from mysterious causes. At first he thinks it is just the "luck of the draw," but as the numbers mount, he’s forced to think otherwise. As he struggles to find out why these people are dying while simultaneously having to deal with the unreasonable demands of being first-year resident, things rapidly spiral out of control.

Between fatigue, stress, and nerves, it’s no wonder that these first few days and nights of his surgical residency are tough ones. What is surprising, though, are the visions that begin to plague Mitt—visions of a little girl in a bloodstained dress, hearing bloodcurdling screams in the distance, and worse. As bodies mount and Mitt’s stress level rises, he finds himself drawn into the secrets of the abandoned Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital building, which to his astonishment still exists, defying demolition a few doors north of the modern Bellevue Hospital high-rise. Forcing an unauthorized entry into this storied but scary structure, Mitt discovers he’s more closely tied to the sins of the past than he ever thought possible.

 

I could tell fairly quickly that the plot was not going to be about the usual problems in the practice of medicine. Fuller's visions were bizarre. He both saw and smelled visions whenever he passed certain places in the Bellevue Hospital district.  I initially thought that Mitt was having psychiatric issues and that the book would be about that.  It wasn't. However, these visions were impeding his ability to perform the duties of his residency and he had one problem after another. All seven of the patients assigned to him died. Because the series has always been about issues in medicine, I thought that maybe there was a link to these deaths that led back to Mitt. There wasn't.  SPOILER ALERT!  Toward the end of the book Mitt meets a lady who is in charge of housekeeping.  She tells him that she has also seen the "ghosts" and offers to take him to the old Psychopathic Hospital where the ghosts reside and where there are medical records dating back 150 years in the Psychopathic Hospital's history that may give him the raison d'être for his visions. Yes, this is a ghost story!

The plot was intense and fast paced. I really thought that it was all about why those seven patients died but the truth was bizarre. The ending was both surprising and bizarre but I could not stop laughing for hours after finishing the book. It is definitely worth reading.  5 out of 5 stars.

The Last Patient of the Night

Last Patient of the Night is the debut novel of Gary Gerlacher and the beginning of his medical thriller series featuring AJ Docker. Docker is an emergency room physician who treats Tracy Palmer for a broken wrist in the morning. She is dropped off in the evening and is dead. Tracy was Docker's last patient on his shift.

The publisher's summary:

The death of a nameless young woman in his emergency room spurs physician AJ Docker to seek answers. Together with his policeman friend and a police dog, he sets out on a quest for justice for his lost patient, but he discovers more questions than answers as he delves into the criminal world. 

Last Patient of the Night is an action packed thriller interspersed with lighthearted stories from the emergency room, featuring a cast of interesting characters. 

Gary Gerlacher’s experience as an emergency physician lends authenticity to the ER culture. His debut novel is the first in the AJ Docker series, and will leave you turning pages late into the night.

The back cover blurb states that this book is a mystery but with alot of information on working in an emergency room (ER). This is 100% accurate. It seemed to me that the author wrote a book on the ER and then tried to throw in a murder. The ER setting was more prominent than the mystery. While the setting provided was interesting, the book is supposed to be a medical thriller. However, it falls short of the thriller category description. The author is an ER physician himself which is why he has numerous anecdotes about the ER. I can understand the desire to put everything you know about a setting into a novel but Gerlacher should have pulled back.

While Tracy Palmer was dead on arrival at the ER, she was never mentioned again. Another woman by the name of Jenny Smithton seems to have taken her place. There was no mention that they were the same person but I figured it out from their character descriptions. Another odd part of the book is that it begins with Docker performing a tracheotomy on a ski slope. I thought it would be connected to the plot but it wasn't. I am assuming Gerlacher was introducing the reader to his main character.

AJ Docker is a smart ass character. He is arrogant and gets away with plenty of shinnanagans. He is our amateur sleuth. I have never before read a book where a man was an amateur sleuth and it was awkward for me. Also, amateur sleuth mysteries tend to follow a particular cozy mystery formula. Last Patient of the Night does not do this. In addition, while Docker was performing his investigation he killed 3 men on three separate days. The two officers that were in charge of the official investigation were aware and never arrested or charged him. This just isn't realistic. 

This book had many problems and the more I think about them the more disappointed I am. I am rating it 1 out of 5 stars.

Manner of Death

Manner of Death is another fast paced medical thriller from Robin Cook. While it is the 14th book in his series featuring husband and wife team Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, Cook has written 40 novels to date. In this installment of the series Jack and Laurie must resolve a series of homicides that have been cleverly staged as suicides.

The publisher's summary:  

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.

This is a fast paced suspense thriller. While it is part of a series featuring Montgomery and Stapleton, it can be read as a standalone novel. Information from prior novels in the series has been skillfully written into the back story. Ryan Sullivan is a new character for the series. He is unlikable and, at first, seems to be the villain. He is not. Laurie takes him under her wing to force him to take his pathology internship seriously. Ryan cannot bear the graphic nature of performing an autopsy. He finds a way to get out of doing them by offering to study suspicious deaths that he feels were not due to suicide. During this study he finds his footing and begins to take the internship seriously. Here is where the thriller takes off. Fans of Robin Cook will probably like what he has done at the end of the story concerning Montgomery and Stapleton. I think it is the right step. While I do not want to spoil it for anyone who is going to read Manner of Death, note that something new is on the horizon for the series. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Night Shift

Night Shift is Robin Cook's 39th medical thriller. At 82 years of age he is still on staff at the Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary in Boston. His first novel was published 46 years ago and I have enjoyed all but one, Intersection. He has had an incredible literary journey as well as a successful medical practice as an ophthalmologist.

The publisher's summary:  

Colleagues turned spouses, Dr. Laurie Montgomery and Dr. Jack Stapleton already have their plates full with 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 hospital parking garage, an autopsy is required, and it falls uncomfortably under Laurie's purview as the chief medical examiner. So when Laurie asked 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 the 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.

Night Shift is a first-rate story. With the story taking place within a two day period of time, the book has a supersonic pace that keeps you reading until it has been finished in one sitting. Cook's writing has not suffered with this long-standing series, while other authors seem to lose interest in their series and characters. What most likely keeps the series fresh for Cook is that the story always revolves around an issue or problem in medicine today. Cook does give the reader plenty of development with his characters but the main thrust of all of his novels is modern medicine. In Night Shift, the focus is on medical serial killers. 

I enjoyed revisiting the usual characters: Laurie, Jack, Vinnie who is Jack's assistant, and officer Lou Saldano. Vinnie and Lou are not central to this particular story. There are new characters such as the deceased Dr. Passero and her closest colleagues and they were interesting. Laurie and Jack's relationship has suffered since Laurie became his boss and, finally, he has asked her to step down. Laurie does not respond to the request in this installment of the series but perhaps she will think about it in the next novel. Jack has always been a little rough around the edges but it seems to me that he has become rougher since his wife became his boss.

The main problem for the story to resolve is to determine what killed Dr. Passero. Her autopsy showed that there was nothing wrong with her so Jack has to rely on information from those closest to her to come up with the reason that she was killed. He hears from a colleague that Dr. Passero was involved in hospital politics. Jack speaks with quite a few hospital staff before figuring it all out.

Night Shift is a superb entry for this series. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Butcher and the Wren

The Butcher and the Wren is Alaina Urquhart's debut novel. Her day job as an autopsy technician certainly was helpful for her in writing this fantastic psychological thriller. I was completely engrossed in the book from the first chapter.

The publisher's summary:

"Something dark is lurking in the Louisiana bayou: a methodical killer with a penchant for medical experimentation is hard at work completing his most harrowing crime yet, taunting the authorities who desperately try to catch up.

But forensic pathologist Dr. Wren Muller is the best there is. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of historical crimes, and years of experience working in the Medical Examiner's office, she's never encountered a case she couldn't solve. Until now. Case after case is piling up in Wren's examination table and soon she is sucked into an all consuming cat and mouse chase with a brutal murderer getting more brazen by the day."

This is a fast paced plot driven story that takes place in Louisiana. Here there are plenty of good places to stash a dead body. They can be hidden in tall grass by the water's edge or next to exposed tree roots. The variety of these places provide different decomposition times which could confuse a medical examiner not as experienced as Dr. Muller.

The serial killer and Wren Muller characters are well developed. We read more about the serial killer's background than Muller, who is the protagonist. He has a data entry day job but also attends medical school at Tulane. Because of his busy schedule he can only "work" on weekends. He always leaves different calling cards when he dumps a body in order to confuse the police. I liked him as a character. Wren is the perfect sleuth. She has the educational background and employment experience to conduct forensic investigations and would be great as a series protagonist. There is a side to her personality that could make her character a little softer. She was a crime victim herself. I don't know if the author plans on this being a series but I hope so. 

Mystery lovers will definitely want to read this book. 5 out of 5 stars!