Description

Bestselling "master of the medical thriller" (The New York Times) Robin Cook delivers a gripping new novel of greed, corruption, and the lethal cost of private equity in healthcare

Dr. Jack Stapleton thought he’d left behind the ruthless grip of corporate healthcare after retraining in forensic pathology, but his escape was not as final as he’d hoped. Now, to help an old colleague being sued for malpractice over an infectious death following a cataract extraction, Jack is pulled back into the throes of clinical medicine. But the old autopsy file creates more questions than answers, especially after Jack learns that the Manhattan General Hospital where the operation had been performed had been purchased a year earlier by an aggressive profit seeking private equity firm called Asclepius Heath Partners—and its founder, Gerald Barlow, had been involved in the company that ruined his medical practice years ago.

As Jack finds himself venturing deeper into Gerald’s shady business practices, he finds himself at odds with his wife, Dr. Laurie Montgomery Stapleton, the Chief Medical Examiner of the city—a position susceptible to Gerald’s hefty mayoral political donations. Still Jack persists, and when a lead nurse at the MGH who had been assisting his investigation is found dead, reportedly by suicide, Jack’s suspicions are only deepened as the autopsy he does raises the issue that the suicide was perhaps a homicide.

But with the truth threatening to surface and Gerald willing to do anything to keep his empire intact, it is clear that Jack is a major threat. From Jack’s perspective, exposing what’s going on behind the scenes could save the institution and countless lives… or it could cost Jack his own.