Cover image of "Night Shift," a novel about forensic medicine in NYC

If you’re fond of reading medical thrillers, you’ve probably come across the names of the leading practitioners of the craft. Tess Gerritsen, for example, author of The Surgeon. Michael Crichton (The Andromeda Strain). Patricia Cornwell, author of the Kay Scarpetta series. And Michael Palmer (Extreme Measures). But it’s a fair bet that you’re also familiar with the name Robin Cook, who is often cited as the founder of the genre with his novel, Coma. Cook, an eye surgeon with long experience in clinical medicine, has been writing medical thrillers since his service in the US Navy aboard a submarine during the Vietnam War. Among his 42 novels to date are the 15 in the Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery series. Night Shift is one of the most recent, and it showcases his deep knowledge of the practice of forensic medicine in the nation’s biggest and busiest city.

These medical examiners are a couple, but one’s the boss

Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery are both physicians and medical examiners. Having married at some earlier point in the series, they maintain a household with their two young children. The elder, a girl, is autistic. Her little brother may have ADHD, but Jack resists the diagnosis. And his refusal to allow the boy to be drugged is causing considerable friction between him and Laurie, and even more so with her vaccine-denying mother. Making matters worse, Laurie has recently been named the head of the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). And Jack feels she’s throwing her weight around at home, too, acting the boss. It’s not a happy time in their lives. Then Laurie’s personal physician and best friend, Dr. Susan Passero, turns up dead. And Jack sets out on a fraught quest to discover how and why.

Night Shift (Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery #13) by Robin Cook (2022) 347 pages ★★★★☆

Photo of a temporary morgue in NYC, site of the practice of forensic medicine in NYC
Medical examiners at work in a temporary morgue operated by the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City earlier in this century. Image: ResearchGate

In a nutshell

Most of Sue Passero’s colleagues at Manhattan Memorial Hospital (MMH) like and admire her. Most, but not all. And Jack’s belated discovery of that fact leads him into a complex and frustrating journey of discovery into the operations of MMH and the high-stakes conflicts within its staff. Eventually, he will learn the how and the why Sue Passero died. But that’s a long time coming. Before he uncovers the shocking truth, another MMH physician will die. And Jack will put his career, and his own life, on the line. Before he can wrap up the case, he will need to muster the full forensic capabilities of the OCME. And his friend Lieutenant Commander Lou Soldano, will need to tap the abundant resources of the New York City Police Department.

Night Shift is rich with medical and forensic terminology, not all of which is entirely clear in context. But Dr. Cook makes it work. And most readers will grasp the underlying theme in the novel: the takeover of American medicine by profit-hungry private investors. It’s not a pretty picture.

Setting the context

“Of the seventy to eighty thousand deaths that occurred in New York City every year,” Cook notes, “about a third of them had to be reported to the OCME.” This includes, most prominently, all deaths occurring by criminal violence, accident, suicide, sudden death in healthy individuals, suspicious circumstances, or while in custody. Other reportable deaths include drug/poisoning cases, fatal workplace injuries, unattended deaths, and neonatal deaths from prematurity.” This amounts to some 8,500 to 9,000 deaths annually these days. That translates to about 750 per month, or 25 per day. No wonder Jack and the other 41 medical examiners in the office stay busy year-round when it can take weeks to wrap up a single forensic investigation.

About the author

Photo of Robin Cook, author of this novel about forensic medicine in NYC
Robin Cook, MD, in Warsaw, Poland in 2008. Image: Wikipedia

Robin Cook, MD writes about medicine and topics affecting public health, most of them thrillers. To date, he has written 15 novels in the Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery series and 27 other, standalone novels. Many of his books have made their way to television and film.

Cook was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1940. He holds degrees from Wesleyan University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He finished his postgraduate medical training at Harvard. Cook wrote his first novel while serving aboard a US Navy submarine during his military service from 1969 to 1971.

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You might also enjoy two novels by Tess Gerritsen, Harvest (A classic medical thriller about organ transplants) and Gravity: A Novel of Medical Suspense (An action-packed medical thriller set in orbital space),

Two medical novels by Abraham Verghese might also interest you: The Covenant of Water (A deeply moving tale of life, love, and loss in 20th-century India) and Cutting for Stone (A deeply affecting medical drama set in Ethiopia).

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