
And in this sense, the novel is a disappointment. She not only gets fired, but becomes the target of Mafia hit men.įor all the excitement, what's behind the mystery turns out to be mundane and anticlimactic. In desperation, she leaks the information to the press. Montgomery suspects that contaminated drugs are in circulation and wants to warn the public, but her boss doesn't allow her to do so. She becomes aware of a certain trend: Young professionals who are not known to be drug users are dying from overdoses. Laurie Montgomery, 32 and single, works as an associate medical examiner in the office of the chief medical examiner in New York. And to make things lively, add a couple of Mafia hit men." For romantic purposes, throw in two suitors. And, in this age of women's liberation, let's make the protagonist a woman in a man's world. The ophthalmologist-turned-novelist relies on his own formula-writing so much that one can almost follow his thinking as he mixes the ingredients for his literary dish:"OK, let's set the story at a morgue, so my characters can have a romp among mutilated corpses. Robin Cook, who likes to scare his readers with grisly medical thrillers, has chosen the most grisly of medical specialties, forensic pathology, as the theme for his latest novel.
