A Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery Novel – serie

From the "master of the medical thriller" (The New York Times), Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie return in another fast-paced spine chiller about a deadly bioweapon that could disrupt the world order as we know it. “Masterful . . . Robin Cook is at the top of his game.” –#1 NYT bestselling author FREIDA MCFADDENWhen 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.

New York Times #1-bestselling author Robin Cook takes on the cutting-edge world of gene modification in this pulse-pounding medical thriller.When a young, seemingly healthy woman collapses suddenly on a New York City subway car and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is chalked up to a virulent strain of influenza. That is, until she ends up on veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton's autopsy table, where Jack discovers some striking anomalies: First, that the young woman has had a heart transplant, and second, that her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart. After two other victims succumb to a similar rapid death, Jack fears the city is facing an unprecedented pandemic. But the facts aren't adding up, and now Jack must race against the clock to determine what kind of virus can wreak such terrifying havoc. But when his investigation leads him into the fascinating realm of CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing biotechnology that allows animal DNA to be inserted into living human cells, he'll uncover the dark underbelly of the organ-transplant market...and come face-to-face with a megalomaniacal businessman willing to risk human lives to fulfill his dreams of conquering a lucrative new medical frontier. And if Jack's not careful, the next life lost might be his own...