Reeling from a devastating encounter that nearly ended his life, Jack Stapleton is still in recovery leaving his wife Laurie Montgomery, New York's Chief Medical Examiner, to manage a difficult situation at home and an even tougher one at work. Calling on a pathology resident named Ryan Sullivan to assist her on a suicide case provokes an extreme reaction in the man. So when Ryan himself appears on the medical examiner's table days later, an apparent death by suicide, Laurie is compelled to try and understand what happened. The autopsy reveals the disturbing possibility that foul play was involved, and provides many more questions than answers. Ignoring her own professional rules, Laura personally investigates who might want Ryan dead and why. So beginning a descent into a dangerous world filled with ruthless individuals who will do anything to protect their business interests, and which might just cost Laurie her life . . .

Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word ‘medical’ to the thriller genre, and decades after the publication of his 1977 breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created. Cook has successfully combined medical fact with fiction to produce over thirty international bestsellers, including Outbreak, Terminal, Contagion, Chromosome 6, Foreign Body, Intervention and Cure.