Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery are back. Actually this is the novel where these two were introduced to us readers.

After the review I gave about Chromosome 6, some of you may wonder why I would read another of his novel since I wasn't that impressed? Well, like for Grisham, I wanted to give him another chance and I was short of books to read too : )

So unlike the Street Lawyer by Grisham that will never make it to the bookshelf, this one does, and justifiably so, since I actually liked it.

Stapleton had newly arrived in NYC and has been working for the medical examiners office for the past five months. He lives in Harlem, for a white it's like suicide for some and he's totally reckless, riding his bike through Central Park at night, dodging traffic during the day etc....

A body comes in and by his state, Stapleton and Vinnie, the mortician tech, decide to put moon suits on.

Stapleton seems baffled by the state of the body and by the looks of it makes abet with Calvin Washington who is one the heads of the ME that it's plague that killed the man.

The lab results come in and it's actually plague that killed the guy.

Stapleton goes over the Manhattan General Hospital to investigate and succeeds in provoking all the people there even though he's trying to help.

New bodies arrived but Stapleton doesn't think it's pneumonic plague like the other one. He makes another bet and bingo it's tularemia (don't ask me what it is, I have no clue except that it's a very infectious disease). Now they have two outbursts of very dangerous diseases coming from the same hospital

At the same time, Jack and his officemate, Chet, meet two nice ladies Colleen and Terese Hagen who work in advertising. They learned that one of their clients is a hospital conglomerate, a rival of the AmeriCare, the group that owns Manhattan General Hospital. By pure accident, Jack helps Terese find a line for a new ad campaign. And she enrolls him in helping her to find new concepts for the ad campaign, much to Jack's chagrin.

At the same time at the hospital, outbreaks of new dangerous diseases kill more people at the hospital; Jack is persuaded that there is something wrong, since there is no epidemic involved.

Coming back to his apartment one night, he finds it totally trashed which doesn't surprise him but he also founds the guys in his kitchen. He is given a warning. Not to go back to the hospital.

A very intriguing novel, first because you follow Jack Stapleton in his thoughts and you agree with him but you don't seem, like him, to find, what is going on besides the fact it's no natural epidemics.

And unlike Chromosome 6, it does have an end : )

A lot happens to that poor Jack Stapleton and a lot of deaths are involved as more infectious diseases appear.

I liked it and read it pretty fast. Of course, for those who are a little paranoid about diseases, I wouldn't advise to read this book :) or any of Robin Cook's, for that matter, they tend to address your paranoia. But I learned one thing, never trust nurses, doctors and hospitals : ) not that I didn't know that before but now I'm convinced to be very careful in a hospital environment. You never know what you could get there : )