Manner of Death by Robin Cook

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on December 5, 2023

Many of the Robin Cook novels I’ve read have hinged on plots of doubtful plausibility. Manner of Death is the least plausible among them.

The novel is one of many featuring medical examiner Jack Stapleton and his wife, Laurie Montgomery, who is New York City’s chief medical examiner. Much of the story (and the most interesting part) involves a young resident named Ryan Sullivan who is doing a rotation in the morgue, observing and assisting with autopsies. Sullivan doesn’t like the smell and would rather be performing work for which he feels more suited.

Sullivan shies away from one of the autopsies because it involves a suicide. Sullivan’s father committed suicide and Sullivan tried to kill himself when he was young. He was adopted by a doctor who is now a big shot, which explains his rise from unfortunate circumstances to a medical residency.

Although he doesn’t like autopsies, Sullivan becomes intrigued by the forensic evidence that drives decisions to classify deaths as suicides or murders staged as suicides. Montgomery makes him aware of several recent cases in which medical legal investigators alerted the medical examiners to red flags that might be indicative of homicide. All of the cases were eventually ruled to be suicides, in part because the police pressure the investigators to classify the death as a suicide because homicides are a lot of extra work.

Sullivan persuades Montgomery to excuse him from autopsies for a bit while he searches for commonalities in the cases. Sullivan interviews various investigators and witnesses to search for a common thread. He finds several. All of the victims were executives in large corporations, were reasonably young, and had recently had medical examinations that were paid for by their employers.

Without revealing any surprises, I think I can safely reveal that two related medical centers are scamming patients. One center makes a doubtful diagnosis and then sends the patient to the other center for unnecessary but expensive full body scans. The owner of the centers is losing money and doesn’t want to give refunds to disgruntled patients.

As is common to Stapleton novels, one of the central characters is imperiled as the novel nears its conclusion. That gives the novel its obligatory action, but it also means that the books in the series are acquiring a predicable sameness.

My complaint about the plot centers on the motive for the staged suicides. Hiring mercenaries from a security firm to commit murders seems like it would be more expensive (and much riskier) than simply settling claims of patients who decide they have been defrauded. And since the patients' employers are paying the bill, I doubt they would actually kick up much of a fuss.

A complaint that is common to all of Cook’s novels concerns the dialog. It’s awful. Maybe medical examiners in the real world speak to each other as if they were automatons (although AI speaks as naturally as humans these days). Attempts to make the characters sound human come across as artificial. And all characters, including non-doctors, speak in the same tedious voice. A doctor might say “irrespective of its efficacy” but would a cop?

Sullivan’s quest is reasonably interesting. He is a tedious young man but he’s still the novel’s saving grace. Given the leaden dialog and doubtful plot, I can’t give a full recommendation to Manner of Death, but hardcore fans of medical thrillers and of the forensic analysis surrounding death might enjoy it more than I did.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS