NIGHT SHIFT - ROBIN COOK

3.75⭐

PLOT -
Jack and Laurie are at it again. When an internist does suddenly the cause of death seems anything but natural with an inconclusive autopsy forcing Jack to resolve the case by visiting the scene of incident... Manhattan Memorial Hospital.
But soon Jacks life is in danger as the killer won't stop at anything to protect his identity.

MY THOUGHTS -
Being a doctor I love medical thrillers and hence have read most of Robin Cooks books whilst studying.
While this one wasn't my favourite it still had a good mystery.
The suspect was quite easily identified by ke hence I felt a bit bored with endless description that went on till the killer was finally nabbed.
I appreciated that the author introduced Covid 19 protocols of vaccination and maks wearing on numerous occasions.
Looking for a good medical thriller check this one out.
Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The medical examiners office is not where you want to meet up with an old friend. When Jacks wife Laurie’s friend shows up dead, she asks her husband to do the autopsy. Jack begins the autopsy and something just does not sit right. going behind his wife’s back, who happens to be the chief medical officer and jacks boss, Jack begins to investigate the death of their friend. So begins a whodunnit of a story. RobinCook never fails to pull it all together!

Married physicians Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery are surprised to learn that Dr. Susan Passero is dead. She was discovered in her car at the Manhattem Memorial Hospital parking lot. At first it looked as if Dr. Passero would survive from ann heart attack but it failed. Jack, a New York City medical examiner can’t find a satisfactory cause of death. Why? His wife, chief medical examiner was friends with Dr. Passero and asks Jack to find what cause her heart attack. Jack can’t. He decides to talk to Dr. Passero’s colleagues to see if they knew anything about her health. His digging finds a possible cause for her murder cas Jackbelieves that is what happened to her.. The killer goes after a nurse who knows too much and he kills her in spite of doing her best to survive. The next victim is to be Jack.but will he succeed? What will happen to Jack?

The author writes a suspenseful novel. At first I wondered why the killer was so careful to killing his victims. What was he thinking — what made him do it? I am a fan of the author’s book. It’s a decent story but I thinks it is not his best as I was somehow a little disappointed. It is a mystery with some family problems included. I didn’t think it was necessary addition to the novel.. it didn’t add to the novel’s plot I thought. Still I will say I was glad I got to read it.

Medical examiner Dr. Jack Stapleton likes cases that challenge him. When a good friend of his wife unexpectedly dies Jack can’t find any reason for her death and suspects something else is going on. He discovers a rumor of an Angel in the hospital killing patients. His investigation annoys executives in the hospital and threatens his safety. This is a good medical thriller that kept me turning the pages. I always enjoy Robins books and this one doesn’t disappoint. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

A fast paced medical thriller with a set of favorite characters.

Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery are married with a couple of special needs kids. In addition, both are medical examiners for the state of New York, with Laurie being the chief. This long running series features the pair of doctors examining cases that are atypical and confusing. In this thirteenth installment, Jack is tasked with an autopsy that should be routine but that turns into so much more than he anticipated. It seems there is a medical serial killer loose in the hospital and Jack is determined to find out who it is and stop them.

I’ve read Robin Cook forever and that is saying something as I am well past middle age. I absolutely love a good medical thriller and this author usually comes through with a good case scenario that I can dissect and enjoy. Can I help it if at times I don’t want Jack and Laurie to be rescued by a last minute miracle — but sorry — they do always manage to figure out what is going on, identify the dastardly criminal, and save the day. I always love the forensic details and the medical stuff, the interesting characters, and the plots.

Even if you haven’t kept up with the series, you can pick this one up and read as a standalone for the mystery and the intrigue alone. I do look forward to the next one by one of my favorite authors in this genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

In the 13th book of the Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery Series, Dr. Sue Passero dies mysteriously in the hopsital parking garage, and it is up to Jack to find the cause of her death. When the autopsy turns out to be inconclusive, Jack is even more compelled to resolve the case, going so far as to investigate on-site at Manhattan Memorial Hospital, even though it means blatantly defying the Office of Chief Medical Examiner’s rules. What Jack discovers is unsettling.... Dr Passero was convinced that someone on staff at the hospital was killing patients, but she had no idea who. That person may have not only killed Dr Passero, but now has Jack in their sights as well.
I love this series. This wasn't my favorite book in the series, mainly because I felt like a good portiion of the book was spent mentioning past cases that were in previous books. Also, I do enjoy the contagious disease type stories the best, but that is just me. I did like that they mentioned Covid-19 and the importance of mask wearing and vaccination several times. It was very relevant to this time in our lives. It did have a good mystery. You find out before the end who the murderer is, and it was a shocker. Then you spend the rest of the book nervously waiting for them to hurry up and get caught before they kill someone else or try to kill Jack. This definitely was a good book, just not my absolute favorite. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good thriller or medical mystery.

This is a medical thriller that was intriguing. It was long and kept me engaged. Overall I enjoyed it.

Night Shift by Robin Cook is a recommended medical thriller and the thirteenth installment of novels featuring Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton.

Dr. Sue Passero, a good friend of Laurie's, dies mysteriously in the Manhattan Memorial Hospital parking garage. It is suspected that she had a heart attack, but an autopsy is required. Laurie asks Jack to do it because she knows he is more than competent and will be thorough. We know from the opening scene that Sue was injected with something, so once Jack discovers this, he begins looking for someone who would have a motive to kill her.

Laurie and Jack are established characters for fans. This can be read as a stand-alone if you are just looking for a medical thriller to reliably pass the time. It should be noted that Jack complains way-too-much, especially at the beginning, which made his character less appealing this time around.

Cook is master of the medical thriller genre and can turn out a basically okay surefire page turner every time. The plot is too predictable but it does provide escape and suspense. (I did keep wondering if this plot hasn't already been done in the series, or a variation of it?) It is still an enjoyable medical thriller. No real twists or heart stopping reveals happen here. I personally did some eye rolling over the inclusion of covid and pandemic opinions inserted in the novel. This is an airplane book. It'll pass the time but you won't cry if you misplace it on your trip.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, Edelweiss, and Amazon.

The Night Shift starts out with a bang, and for the most part, keeps you intrigued. There are times when it feels a little dense because of all the detailing in the autopsies with tons of medical terminology. There were also pages of description of things that didn’t add to the story, for instance, I didn’t need to read a page plus on the bike lanes in New York City. I was kept guessing as the killer for the first half of the book but was able to guess the killer prior to the reveal. Once the reveal happened, the book really took off. At that point, this became a medical thriller that will get your heart beating! While you knew who the killer was, the situations that were occurring were intense, and I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. I devoured the second half of this book! This book is perfect for anyone that likes thrillers, and/or medical thrillers. I would highly recommend it!

Night Shift by Robin Cook is an intriguing medical mystery. Jack Stapleton is back to doing what he does best, speaking for the dead.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam, G.P Putnam's Sons, Robin Cook and NetGalley for this eARC of Night Shift in exchange for my honest review.

In this medical mystery thriller written by none other than Robin Cook- Jack and Laurie work together to determine if their good friend/internist is murdered or died of natural causes. Jack takes the reader through a "day in the life" of a medical examiner to only find more questions than answers after completing the autopsy on his friend Dr. Sue Passero. Jack goes with his gut instinct and determines that Sue did not die of natural causes and starts to investigate what may have happened. Jack goes above and beyond his role as a medical examiner and starts to play detective while trying to avoid risking his career if he were to get caught or be proved wrong!

This was a fast-paced medical thriller and while it is part of a series- I felt that it can also be read as a stand alone book as I have never read any of the other books in the Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery series prior to this.

This was my first book by Robin Cook and I felt the medical aspects of the different professions mentioned, diagnoses described and medications discussed were depicted accurately.
This will not be my last Robin Cook read!

Everyone's favorite medical examiner is back in the newest installment of the Jack Stapleton series! When a close friend of Jack's wife passed away unexpectedly and seemingly naturally, Jack decides to dig deeper. The more he learns, the less sense her death makes. All the reports are normal, all the evidence is unremarkable, it's all too neatly tied up. As per usual, Jack gets involved with nefarious forces better left alone, and finds himself in the middle of the killer's end game.

I love all of Robin Cook's books. I've been a fan since Foreign Body. This book was exactly what you want from a Jack Stapleton novel; a slow burn start that morphs into a fast-paced thriller. The only thing that made this one fall a bit lower than the other books in my opinion is the change in Laurie Montgomery's character. I have always enjoyed Jack & Laurie's stress-free banter and their relationship, so seeing it devolve was a bit of a turn off.

Thank you net Galley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Night Shift is the sixth book in the Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery series. In my opinion, the series of books should be read in order as in book one they are dating/working colleagues and by book six they are married with two children.

Robin Cook wrote again a fast paced medical thriller. I was hooked after reading the prologue. Laurie best friend, Dr. Sue Passero, is found dead in the hospital parking garage and Laurie asks Jack to handle the autopsy. Sue's cause of death looked like it was a heart attack, but the autopsy showed that was not the case. Was the cause of death a suicide or murder? Jack sets off to investigate Sue's cause of death. He breaks some of the rules set by the Office of Chief Medical Examiners office and meets with a few of Sue's acquaintances.

Robin Cook is one of my favorite authors.

Whoohoo what a fast paced thriller this was. I loved the medical aspect and didn't realize it was part of a series. I thought it read good as a stand alone. A perfect amount of all the right ingredients of a thriller to keep me turning pages and at the edge of my seat.

Night Shift is a fast-paced medical thriller by the king of medical thrillers, Robin Cook. I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley and although I had not realized that this is book 6 of the "Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery" series, which I have never read before, this was a good stand-alone novel. The story begins with the murder of a doctor friend of Laurie's, Dr. Susan Passero, which was staged to look like a heart attack. Enter ME Jack Stapleton, who realizes that Dr. Passero was in good health and should not be dead. After he investigates at the hospital where Dr. Passero worked, he learns that she was concerned about a possible medical serial killer there. We learn who the killer is about half-way through the book and at first, I was a little surprised that the author gave that information so early - but Robin Cook masterfully crafted this story so that even though that information was given to the reader, the suspense still builds as the reader nail-bites it through each scene, wondering when the killer will be caught before the novel comes to a satisfying ending. Highly recommend! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Medical (and legal) are my favorite sub-thriller genres, and I'm always delighted to see a medically-focused book from this author. For the most part, this one did not disappoint. Smack dab in the middle of the action are husband-and-wife medical examiners Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery (well, she's now the chief ME for the city of New York, technically Jack's boss and a bone of contention between the two, as is the fact that he refuses to give up riding his bicycle to and from the ME's office). The two share a couple of young kids, both with medical issues; they're cared for by Laurie's mother, who's exceptionally competent despite being an anti-vaxxer (her odd-woman-out status and the mask or not to mask issue is interspersed throughout the story).

Early on, another physician, Sue Passero, is found dead in Laurie's hospital parking garage; an autopsy is a must, and because Sue was a good friend, Laurie asks Jack to handle it. Sue's diabetes ups the odds that her death was a heart attack, but the autopsy shows that clearly wasn't the case. Suicide? A not-likely possibility. The other option? Murder - but with an autopsy that turns up no means or motive (and, of course, no whodunit).

Perplexed - an emotion he does not enjoy experiencing - Jack sets off to determine Sue's cause of death; after all, he needs to sign a death certificate, the sooner the better, or so Laurie insists. So, he circumvents a few of the rules instituted by the hospital (now owned, it is noted several times, by a big bad conglomerate known for putting profits above professionalism) and meets with a few of Sue's admirers and a few who are not. What he learns from one on the friends side - and what happens next - is even more perplexing and worrisome, making Jack even more intent on getting to what may be a deadly truth in ways guaranteed not to please him or his wife.

There's plenty of action, and of course, I love all the descriptions of medical procedures (also plentiful), but of course I can't get into more detail without giving away too much. So I'll just say thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a book by a long-time favorite author. Well done!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Publishing Group for providing me with an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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In this exhilarating medical mystery-thriller by Robin Cook, fan favorites Jack and Laurie are lured into the dark underbelly of hospital dangers when an internist is murdered.

Colleagues turned spouses Dr. Laurie Montgomery and Dr. Jack Stapleton already have their plates full with crazy work schedules and family pressures. The last thing they need is a murder. When Laurie’s longtime friend, by all accounts healthy Dr. Sue Passero, dies mysteriously in the hospital parking garage, an autopsy is required, which falls squarely under Laurie’s purview as newly appointed chief medical examiner. So when Laurie asks Jack to take special care with the case, he can hardly refuse.

With his curiosity sparked by the mystery around Sue’s death, the indefatigable Jack, compelled to resolve the case at hand, sets out to investigate on-site at Manhattan Memorial Hospital, even though it means blatantly defying the Office of 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.
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I have long been a Robin Cook fan. I love medical mysteries, and his were probably the first I started reading, way back when I was in high school. While I have not read all of the Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery series, I have read several of them, and I enjoyed them for the most part. That being said...

This one just didn't do it for me. While the premise was entertaining and the story was relatively well-developed, the dialogue among the characters felt stilted and simplistic and it felt like it was written at a lower reading level than I was used to. In fact, at one point, I did a Google search to see if I could find out if a ghost writer was writing for Mr. Cook now...and not as successfully as another big name msytery/suspense author I could name. Within the first third of the book, it was easy to determine who the "had guy" was, and this was confirmed about halfway through the book (which was actually a relief because I would not have wanted to have to wait for the end to have that tidbit revealed), and I am not really the kind of reader who likes to figure out the culprit on my own. I do have to say that the last 20% or so was much more exciting and engaging, but overall this book was not what I have come to expect from Robin Cook.

I've always loved reading Robin Cook and this is another great read. His style will keep you in the edge of your seat and turning the pages.

What an amazing book. I couldn’t put it down and it was paced just as fast as I love it. Robin Cook is one of my favorite authors and this story does not disappoint from the beginning until the end. I was captivated by the world build detailed in a hospital and also it's. morgue. It had drama, hospital politics, action, suspense as the passing of a young doctor doesn't make sense. Read as Dr. Jack Stapleton is relentless in proving that the doctor didn't due of a heart attack. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

I had high hopes for this book as a love medical thrillers, but at 25% done I am choosing to not finish. I know more about New York bike lanes at this point than about the murder. Just not the right pacing for me.