Robin Cook, Crisis

Crisis is another in a long line of medical thrillers from author Robin Cook. I have enjoyed many of his previous books, and this one lived up to the same standard. Favorite characters Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery resurface again. Jack is a medical examiner in New York City. When he learns that his sister's husband is being tried for medical malpractice up in Boston, he heeds his sister's call for help when the trial doesn't seem to be going well and comes up to Boston. His brother-in-law, Craig Bowman, is on trial for the death of Patience Stanhope, a "problem patient" of his who died of a heart attack. The plaintiff's case is that Craig didn't respond to the threat of a heart attack with proper speed, and instead of sending Patience straight to the hospital, he made a house call, delaying her care. The motive for this house call was alleged to be that Craig wanted to make the start of the symphony concert that evening to show off his mistress, and could only do so if he made a quick stop by the house on the way to the concert. It turned out that Patience was in very serious condition, and after being rushed to the hospital she died a bit later.

Once he arrived, Jack suggested that he may be able to help by conducting an autopsy of the deceased patient, in hopes of finding some major pathology that would prove that the delay had no bearing on the patient's death, or that some other factors mitigated against medical malpractice. So he began the process of exhuming the body, first needing permission from the husband (and plaintiff in the case), and once that was secured, needing to arrange for the exhumation and autopsy to happen quickly. Along the way, he was met with much opposition, mostly in the form of intimidation from Franco, the plaintiff lawyer's rather dubious sidekick. But Jack pressed on, and finally, on the evening before the last day of the trial, he was able to conduct an autopsy. But what he found surprised him. There was no pathology suggesting heart disease, and neither was there any type of pathology indicating why the patient had declined so quickly. This created quite a mystery, but one that was finally solved by toxicology. A potent poison was found in her system that causes failure of the sodium channels of all muscles, and thus, major problems with the heart. This proved especially interesting because the poison in question is a highly controlled substance, but also a chemical that Craig himself used extensively in research. It turned out that upon inspection, traces of it were found in Craig's medical bag. He had murdered his "problem patient," much to Jack's dismay. But this evidence was turned over to the judge, who dismissed the medical malpractice case and forwarded the evidence to the district attorney for criminal charges.

Crisis is another good medical thriller from Robin Cook. There were some interesting plot twists, though the characters (and especially the villains) seemed a bit stylized, though in this case that proved to be good misdirection, as they were not ultimately behind the wrongdoing. Crisis is worth the read (or as in my case, the listen), and is a good, fast paced, and engaging mystery.