Critical is the seventh book in Robin Cook’s Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery series. I have now read the first seven books in the series. Like the first six, I found Critical both entertaining and somewhat educational.
Main Review
Laurie Montgomery is investigating a series of deaths from serious infections at a franchise of specialty hospitals. At the same time, Jack Stapleton, her husband, is scheduled to have knee surgery at one of the hospitals she is investigating. Laurie needs to solve the case of the suspicious infections and keep her husband from going through with his plans for the surgery.
As the story unfolds, we learn the franchise is in big financial difficulty and its largest investor is a criminal. To make matters more difficult for Laurie, there are powerful business and political interests who do not want her to figure out the reason for the deaths.
Critical was certainly worth the read. I do enjoy learning more about medicine and health, even if that learning is not always good to think about. Since I like the Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton characters, I do enjoy the series.
Spoiler Alert
I will say the two people interested in killing Laurie eventually getting into it was too predictable. It was too convenient to have one would be murderer take out the other.
Also, Laurie showing up just as the man was about to dump the powder into the vent and kill Jack was a little too Hollywood for me. Life is almost never that easy.