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!