3.5/5 stars

Thank you to Putnam Books and Net Galley for the advanced reader copy of Manner of Death.

I am a lifelong reader of all Robin Cook books and especially enjoy the Jack Stapleton/Laurie Montgomery series.

The last few books have been a little disappointing for me as I feel they lack detail that earlier Jack/Laurie books contain.

Manner of Death had a little more depth than the previous books, but there is still opportunity to return to the level of earlier novels. That said, I still enjoyed the story and love the characters and their interactions with each other.

Manner of Death by Robin Cook is a riveting medical mystery-thriller that took me on an absolute thrilling ride. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way. All of the events and twists truly had me on edge.
Sharp and well-written with an interesting premise this murder mystery is an exciting read.
Well crafted characters, wonderfully descriptive setting and a brilliant plot all contribute to a great book

I would like to thank NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

This book is #14 in Cook's medical thriller series with married medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton. This did fine as a stand alone novel, for those who are new to the series.
Laurie is Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, and her husband, Jack is also a ME in the same office. The story centers around some questionable autopsies that have been completed in the last year or so. Some of the police officers and MEs involved had questioned whether the victims died from suicide or were murdered. Dr. Ryan Sullivan is competing a rotation at the ME office, much to his dismay. But, these questionable deaths pique his interest and energy. Sullivan's investigation leads him to the Park Avenue offices of Oncology Diagnostics. All of the questionable victims had interactions with this office, and Sullivan is hoping this is the lead that he needs.
I don't want to share much more, but this was a great book! I hadn't picked up a Robin Cook novel in a long time, and I'm very happy that I was able to read this one. I will be adding Cook to my TBR list again.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Great book! Started a little slow but I always enjoy the books in this series! A little predictable overall.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Penguin Group Putnam Publications and Robin Cook for the opportunity to read an advance copy of MANNER OF DEATH, to be published 5 December 2023. 5/5 Stars for this exciting novel portraying forensic pathologists in their natural setting. It was intriguing and a particularly fast read because I had to see how it developed. Detail oriented and medically specific, it was a pleasure to read about the inside workings of a major metropolitan Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Anyone interested in forensics will love this fantastic read! #NetGalley. #PenguinGroupPutnamPublications #RobinCook #MannerofDeath

Robin Cook creates another engaging read. Not as tight as some of his earlier books, though enjoyable. The ending, moved to the Epilogue felt a bit foreshortened and there were some actions by the a characters that did not seem to follow what I would have expected their logic. They caused the story, at a couple of points, to be too predicable. I love Robin Cook for his use of forensics to give the story depth. This book was not as strong as previous ones, in that area. The core of the weakness was in not using the forensics to solve the "crimes", but depend on the confession in the Epilogue. Was not a fulfilling a finish to the story. Another chapter or two where the MEs and MLIs came closer to or actually solved the crimes would have left me more satisfied with the story. If there we half stars for the rating, I would have done a half less due to that weakness. Still a good and enjoyable read.

3.5⭐️

#14 Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton series.

My first Robin Cook read for many moons! I didn’t realise that it was well into an established series before reading it.

Laurie and Jack are a married couple working in the Medical Examiners dept. Laurie is the chief medical examiner. They have a new resident Ryan who wants to research a spate of su*cides which initially presented with red flags by the medical investigators. Ryan plays a big part in the story, his interest in the research is altruistic having more to do with getting him away from as many autopsies during his rotation as possible. I must say I took a shine to him, with his honesty, and difficult past.

I really liked the premise of the story, it’s a bit different, but feels like it could be scarily real.

We get several POV giving us the who and why from the outset which is most unusual. It’s presented as more of a mystery for Ryan as he pieced together the clues. But the reader knows everything from the outset so there’s not a lot of tension or suspense, but there is a lot of repetition as the evidence is constantly reviewed. I found the story telling to be too slow for me.

I enjoyed getting the antagonists POV and backstories, but there was no final reveal for the reader which felt disappointing.

I found it went into too much depth for me about how one of the medical tests worked. It felt like an information dump.

My final feelings are this book had promise, but the way that it was delivered didn’t really work for me. I’m sure a lot of dedicated fans will disagree with me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

Another thriller by Robin Cook. How can you go wrong with the type of medical mysteries this author comes up with? I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this advanced readers copy. This book is due to release on December 5, 2023.

Jack is still recovering from his near-death confrontation and his wife Laurie, the NYC chief medical examiner is carrying a heavy load. Despite everything, Laurie insists on performing one autopsy a week with a resident. When she meets Ryan, she unknowingly provokes an emotional response.

When Ryan shows up on the table only days later, apparently due to suicide, Laurie feels like she is to blame. Her guilt compels her to figure out the manner of death, and opens a can of worms no one saw coming. Will Laurie be able to figure out this mystery before its too late? Or is she in danger just looking into it?

I have read a few of the Laurie and Jack books over the last few years, and I always enjoy them and couldn’t wait to dive in. I can’t believe that this is the 14th book in this series! These books always contain so much suspense and drama. This book does deal with some sensitive topics, so I would say if certain things bother you then you should make sure you know what you are getting into. The author did do a good job of explaining things, but the topics are very real and not sugar coated in any way. While I loved this one, my biggest complaint was how this one wrapped up. I felt that the ending was really rushed and deserved more attention. It was just too clean cut and a few things should have been better explained. However, despite that, I did enjoy this book very much and would highly recommend it to those who love medical thrillers.

Thank you to the publisher Penguin Group – Putnam, @putnambooks, and Netgalley, @netgalley, for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story features Laurie the chief medical examiner of NY and her husband Jack. A series of suicides have raised the eyebrows of the coroners and police. They all appear to be legitimate suicides but there are details that don’t quite fit. This was a great medical thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. This book is part of a series but can be read as a stand alone. If you like the genre of medical thrillers you will enjoy this book. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

This story follows known characters Jack and Laurie as they investigate the cause of death of one of their pathology residents. While Jack and Laurie are featured in a series of Cook's books, this book can easily been read as a stand-alone book. This book was a page-turner for me, and I enjoyed the suspense and anticipation as the story evolved.

Ryan Sullivan is a resident starting his residency rotation conducting autopsies, and he has been less than engaged in the work so far. Laurie, the chief medical examiner, works with him to complete an autopsy on a suicide patient. The autopsy triggered some past emotions/events for Ryan, but also raised his interest in a few clues that didn't seem quite right.
When Ryan shows up in the medical examiner's office days later, dead from an apparent suicide, Laurie is baffled and is determined to figure out why and what happened.

Laurie Montgomery and Jackie Stapleton are back with another OCME medical thriller. This book references a previous title quite frequently (Genesis), when a resident, Ryan, is found dead (this is the second resident to die while Laurie has been Chief). Ryan (the resident), has quite a history and is off-put by the idea of medical exams/post mortems. When an OCME doctor raises a concern that there has been an uptick in odd suicides over the past couple of months, Ryan takes the opportunity to collect data to try to find a trend in trade for sitting out on autopsies for a while. Ryan starts by finding similarity in age of some of the victims, but as the population increases from 6 to 8, he starts to uncover that most of these folks have had a recent “asymptomatic” Cancer diagnosis from a medical scanning company (was this enough to cause depression to lead to suicide in the population of people?). What is the future of Ryan and the investigation that Laurie encouraged him to go on, hoping it would ignite a passion in Ryan for forensics?

There is a new guy at the New York autopsy site. He is a pathology resident and dislikes the autopsy environment. It seems to trigger his past which was filled with suicide and violence. Ryan, the resident finds a way to get out of some of the actual body dissection by investigating some mysterious suicides linked to a cancer-finding group. Jack and Laurie start on the hunt of the mystery that is compounded by politics, egos, and experts in the killing crimes. Manner of Death is an entertaining, well-written mystery that moves fast and keeps the reader on edge. Enjoyed the setting, the characters, and the well times story. Thanks to #NetGalley#MannerofDeath for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have been a fan of Robin Cook for many years, and he is the master of medical thrillers! Manner of Death features favorite Laurie Montgomery, chief medical examiner of NYC, and her husband, Jack Stapleton who is also a medical examiner. When a pattern of similar cases on autopsy emerges, the story picks up speed and doesn’t let go. Although this book is part of a series, this book can easily be read as a stand-alone.
If you love medical mysteries, or are curious about this genre, read this and all of Cook’s books!

Laurie Montgomery is the NYC chief medical examiner; her husband Jack Stapleton a pathologist recovering from an attack by a serial killer. Ryan Sullivan is a pathology resident who, due to his significant personal history, is very unsettled performing autopsies during his rotation in the morgue. Laurie tries to take him under her wing and when she mentions that there are been some recent suicides that were somewhat questionable as perhaps really having been homicides, he, with her consent, decides to review the cases. Both Laurie and Jack warn him to only investigate within the department as they are still reeling from the murder of another reluctant resident who decided to look into a suspicious case. When Ryan finds a commonality among the deceased involving a medical practice and early cancer diagnostic testing,
more lives including his own are in danger.

Cook weaves an engrossing, fast paced tale; I did not want to put it down. Told from multiple points of view, he taps into the very real fear of doctors benefitting financially from the tests they order. I liked reading some of the not overly technical medical explanations involving forensic autopsies and testing for cancer.

I used to enjoy reading Robin Cook’s medical thrillers, but somehow got away from them. When I saw this ARC being offered, I jumped at it and am glad I did. This is actually the fourteenth novel by Cook featuring Jack and Laurie. Although this worked as a stand alone, I now want to go back and read the other thirteen!

Thanks to #netgalley and @putnambooks for the ARC.

Another hit in this medical mystery thriller series!

This is the 14th book featuring the husband-and-wife team of Dr. Jack Stapleton and Dr. Laurie Montgomery. Both work at the OCME in NYC where Laurie is the chief medical examiner. When Laurie tries to motivate a pathology resident by agreeing to let him do some research into several recent suspicious suicide deaths, she unknowingly spurs him to uncover a plot to cover up the nefarious activities of a medical practice that performs cancer testing.

It's hard to keep a long-running series fresh and entertaining but Cook always manages to do so. I like his writing style and have really developed a relationship with his main characters after all these years having read all the installments. I feel as if I know them. The plots are always interesting, and I enjoy the medical detail. Always look forward to the next one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend. Definitely start at the beginning.

Manner of Death by Robin Cook was an interesting and exciting story. I have enjoyed many of Robin Cook's series with Jack and Laurie. Always good, and this one is one of them! I highly recommend this book and the rest of the series. Laurie is the chief Medical Examiner and her husband, Jack, is one of her Medical Examiners. They frequently work together, as is the case with this book. Enjoy! I did.

This is the14th installment of Robin Cook’s Laurie Montgomery/Jack Stapleton married physician/medical examiner team (an on-and-off series since 1991, interspersed with intense medical thrillers), but it can be read as a pulse-pounding standalone. There are references to past books, but they are just as easily incorporated as background information.

In this book, Laurie, head of the New York Medical Examiner’s Office, has a reluctant pathology resident who deeply dislikes his mandatory month at the morgue observing autopsies. But Dr. Ryan Sullivan’s interest is piqued by possible suicides without suspicious circumstances (staged homicides?) and asks permission to research similar cases. Regrettably, Sullivan’s outside interest mirrors a former rogue pathology resident who managed to get herself murdered in the process. As Ryan tries to weave together clues about the suspicious suicides, Jack ends up autopsying a questionable murder/suicide that might also be connected. As a result, Laurie and Jack want to closely oversee Sullivan’s investigation to make sure hasn’t uncovered something more sinister, but the young doctor does share some of the aggressive characteristics of their last failed (and dead) resident.

Cook delivers another page-turner that also pays a fascinating homage to the importance of the role of the medical legal investigator (MLI), the first responder link between the death scene and the medical examiner. This is a very involved medical thriller and although the jargon is plentiful, it’s also clearly explained for the layman. It’s one of those reasons that Cook continues to be so successful with this genre. 5 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Ryan, however, has equally rare hazel eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Nothing more than a patch of grass is described.

Thank you to Penguin Group/GP Putnam and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

“I call it a bug in my ear…when something bothers me, but the significance is not definitive…making me wonder if I might be missing something important”.

This casual observation from a Medical Legal Investigator in the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) made to Ryan Sullivan, a pathology resident on a month rotation for autopsy training at the New York City morgue foreshadows a dive into a dark corner of the medical testing world with negative and false positive results about to happen.

Despite overseeing “some seventy thousand deaths per year and do(ing) it twenty-four hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year”, seven, then, eight recent suicides have intriguing peculiarities. Enough so to arouse the curiosity of the young medical resident, despite his reluctance to do autopsies, to initiate his own inquiries with the mixed endorsement of his supervisors.

Are they suicides or murders staged to look like suicides? Are they connected in some way? And, if so, why?

Once again, Robin Cook creates a twisty cat-and-mouse pursuit to uncover what’s really going on with preliminary cancer tests in his 2023 white coat thriller, “Manner of Death”.

The narrative shifts between not only Ryan and the chief New York City chief medical examiner, Laurie Montgomery, but also those being pursued, Drs. Jerome Pappas and Malik Williams of Oncology Diagnostics and their free-lance mop-up support, Hank Roberts of Action Security.

There is plenty of tense fast-paced chase up and down Manhattan leading to an eyes-wide-open ending, clearly meant for the big screen. Over-the-top…you bet.

Plausible? Cook offers some historical evidence with an Australian published study on the main subject of suicide appearances as cover ups and corollary anecdotes, historical and recent, probably better known to the medical profession to beef up the story.

If you liked Michael Crichton’s’ 1978 film, “Coma”, based on Robin Cook’s novel and starring Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Richard Widmark and a pre- “Magnum PI” Tom Selleck cameo, bury yourself in Cook’s newest effort.