Marker (Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery, #5)

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Marker (Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery #5)

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 2,998 ratings · 151 reviews

With his signature blend of suspense and science, Robin Cook delivers an electrifying page-turner that delves into the murky ethics of developing genomic medicine and modern-day health care.

Paperback, 672 pages

Published July 25th 2006 by Berkley (first published January 1st 2005)

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Dec 19, 2008 melydia rated it 4 of 5 stars

(unabridged audiobook read by George Guidall): Healthy patients are dying mysteriously, and medical examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton are on the case. I liked the plot - I wasn't able to guess the twists ahead of time and I learned a bit about medicine and the medical industry in the process - but some of the language got a little tedious. Perhaps doctors are different, but ordinary people do not regularly use that many four-syllable words per sentence. Cook also has an irritating h...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Phyllis Sommers rated it 4 of 5 stars

As was the case in "Seizure," "Marker" was a page-turning, riveting read. Unlike its predecessor, however, this novel held together to the very end and was, indeed, a very fulfilling read.

Drs. Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery worked together as medical examiners at the OCME, the main Medical Examiner's Department for the city of New York. They also lived together in a long-standing relationship that, due to Jack's reluctance, was not progressing as Laurie wanted it to. Once Laurie moved out...more

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Nov 22, 2012 Dick Edwards rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Nov 18, 2011 Gail Gonet rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was one of the worst books I've read! It was obviously only published by the strength of the Robin Cook name (it wouldn't have been published if it were by a new author!!) I know he's a famous author, but it was like reading something written by a high-schooler (and they'd probably have done a better job). Two dim-witted doctors (who are in Cook's other books) are so dumb you just want to shake them. The dialogue between the doctors, the cop, and internal dialogue is so lame and doesn't res...more

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Aug 03, 2011 James Korsmo rated it 4 of 5 stars

With his latest novel, Cook continues his string of stories about Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, medical examiners in New York City. In Marker, the mystery begins when Laurie posts two bodies on consecutive days that have no obvious pathology. Both were young and seemingly healthy, the only strange circumstance being they were recovering from routine surgeries at Manhattan General Hospital. Laurie puts these two cases together with a couple other cases that had come in the week before, an...more With his latest novel, Cook continues his string of stories about Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, medical examiners in New York City. In Marker, the mystery begins when Laurie posts two bodies on consecutive days that have no obvious pathology. Both were young and seemingly healthy, the only strange circumstance being they were recovering from routine surgeries at Manhattan General Hospital. Laurie puts these two cases together with a couple other cases that had come in the week before, and this gets here interest up. When two more cases come in, she is totally convinced that there is homicide at the root of these mysterious deaths.
Meanwhile, Laurie and Jack's personal relationship has come to a standstill. Jack is unable to commit, and Laurie breaks things off. Into the void left by Jack, she puts a relationship with Roger Rousseau, the chief of medicine at Manhattan General. They met while Laurie was filling him in on the series of suspicious deaths, in hopes that Manhattan General may be able to do something to identify the problem, or at least take some action to prevent future deaths. But things don't get too far before she discovers that she is pregnant with Jack's baby.
The case heats up when another group of suspicious cases comes in to the medical examiner's office. Laure has been able to connect the deaths to a group of six cases from the previous fall at another AmeriCare (managed care) hospital across town. None of the deaths had any obvious cause, and none had any sign of foul play on the toxicology screens. Laurie talks Roger into checking into personell reports from Manhattan General and the other AmeriCare hospital to see about personell that overlap with the two time frames, and who worked the night shift, when all of the deaths occurred. Roger is able to work up a list of possible suspects, but after leaving Laurie a message about some of his findings, he meets a sudden death at the hand of the killer.
Laurie is working hard to put all of the pieces together to come up with a cause of death and also a common thread that may establish motive. And though she continues to have no luck on cause, she notices that all of the patients had a genetics screening test along with their admit labs, and though the results had been removed from the paper records, all had some type of positive result in their electronic files. But just as she is putting some of the key ideas together, she begins suffering from serious obdominal pain, and a quick phone call to her doctor confirms that her pregnancy is in serious trouble, and suspecting a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, she is rushed to the emergency room at Manhattan General. But Laurie is now concerned that she may be the next victim in her own series, as she fits the profile: a young, healthy, post-operative patient, who is positive for a marker, a gene mutation that marks a predisposition to serious health issues (she has found out she has the BRCA1 marker, for the mutated gene that increases risk of breast cancer). Jack rushes over to be with her, and her surgery to repair the ruptured ectopic pregnancy goes routinely. And her recovery starts off routinely, but a rush of patients means she is moved from the recovery floor to a regular floor, where many of the deaths occur. Jack meanwhile has left to run down some leads, and figures out the mode behind the killings, the administration of a lethal does of potassium, a naturally occuring ion in the body. Potassium causes an imbalance of chemicals in the muscles and causes immediate cardiac arrest, but it is difficult to detect on autopsy because it naturally occurs in the body and is naturally released from the muscles upon death, meaning the level is usually elevated after death, therefore masking the lethal injection.
Jack returns to the hospital and rushes to Laurie's room, to discover a nurse (named Jazz) standing over her, and her vital signs rapidly declining. He calls a code, and informs the attending cardiologist that she has high potassium level, allowing them to administer a counteragent and bring her back from cardiac arrest. Jack follows Jazz out after her shift to confront her, since she is one of the suspects already and her presence in the room just confirms his suspicion. But when he gets to her car, she is shot by someone lurking in her back seat.
Detective Lou Soldano, a police detective and friend of Jack and Laurie, helps to piece the details together. Jazz was one of a number of operatives across the country for a group that was working in conjunction with AmeriCare (a managed care company) to eliminate patients who tested positive for gene mutations linked to expensive diseases, such as cancer. The company had realized that Jazz was in danger of being discovered, and wanted to tie up their loose ends, but Jack and Laurie got there first.
As he often does, Cook has woven a good story together with some thoughtful issues that deserve attention. What does the mapping of the human genome mean for the future of medical care. Obviously it holds great promise for identifying causes and possible solutions for many genetically influenced dieseases, but there is also great danger, reminiscent of the movie Gattica, in misusing this knowledge. These are issues we must face in the coming years as we come to terms with new technologies and their ethical implications.(less)

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Jul 04, 2010 Jerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Terrific, suspenseful story -- but mid-book a little bloated...

We're obviously fans of Dr. Robin Cook, having read all two dozen entries in his medical thriller bibliography. Cook has a knack for creating a premise with a hook, then employing a variety of doctors and nurses (et al) to roll out the plot, often with the goal of educating or evangelizing about a current issue along the way. "Marker" is not really a sequel to "Vector", but herein the author reprises the roles of NYC Medical Examiner...more Terrific, suspenseful story -- but mid-book a little bloated...

We're obviously fans of Dr. Robin Cook, having read all two dozen entries in his medical thriller bibliography. Cook has a knack for creating a premise with a hook, then employing a variety of doctors and nurses (et al) to roll out the plot, often with the goal of educating or evangelizing about a current issue along the way. "Marker" is not really a sequel to "Vector", but herein the author reprises the roles of NYC Medical Examiners Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, who start out the book shacked up. But soon Laurie moves out, frustrated by Jack's lack of commitment and worried her biological clock has just about given up on pregnancy and kids at age 43.

At work, Montgomery gets involved in a number of hospital deaths of yuppies in mostly great health who die due to unknown causes within 24 hours of routine surgery. When neither her careful autopsies nor pathology tests yield a clue, she suspects something sinister afoot given that all the deaths are at the same hospital. When the caseload grows to four, she starts making noises about a potential serial killer situation, but her superiors and anybody else who will listen, including Jack, oddly get on her case and dismiss such a wild idea. Three more deaths later, and having discovered six earlier examples, all from one other hospital, coincidentally with common ownership to the other, the fires start burning brighter.

Early on, meanwhile, we readers get to meet the actual sociopath nurse committing the deeds on a contract basis for "Mr. Bob." While we have no clue to the ultimate motive, we get suspicious when managed care and the potential misuse of blood tests for genetic markers (predictive of genetic flaws) seem to have our author on his pulpit. Will they catch the perp and discover the reasoning behind these dark deeds? Well of course, but getting there is a lot of fun!

Our only gripe with this otherwise intriguing novel was that the 520-page tome could have been benefit of a editor's sharper pencil! In the middle, 100 pages of Laurie's frustrations with life, of her getting pregnant without realizing what we readers did long before her, of her dating a new doc, and other such goings-on hardly necessary to the storyline, could easily have hit the dustbin, leaving us a cleaner cut to the chase that becomes the fabulous last part of the book. But otherwise, we have here Cook at his finest: a compelling story, mystery and suspense, and a riveting climax! No need to save for the beach!
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Nov 15, 2011 Kristensilvermoore rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries

I listened to this audiobook and was unimpressed. I knew almost everything that was going to happen before it happened, both in the main characters' personal lives and in terms of the murders being perpetrated and the reason behind these murders. I felt the author revealed too much and gave far too many hints as to what was to come. What did happen in the story was extremely contrived, and I found myself rolling my eyes at certain plot developments. Also, the characters were annoying and unreali...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dr. Robin Cook has done it again- another medical and suspense thriller added to his list of works that deal on almost any topic like medical malpractices, health insurance anomalies, science of Genomics, Bioinformatics etc. This page-turning medical mystery is a sequel to his other books like the Blindsight, Chromosome 6, and Vector. It’s the return of his famous characters in these three books, Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, both forensic pathologists at the Office of the Medical Examin...more Dr. Robin Cook has done it again- another medical and suspense thriller added to his list of works that deal on almost any topic like medical malpractices, health insurance anomalies, science of Genomics, Bioinformatics etc. This page-turning medical mystery is a sequel to his other books like the Blindsight, Chromosome 6, and Vector. It’s the return of his famous characters in these three books, Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton, both forensic pathologists at the Office of the Medical Examiners in NY.It deals with the love/hate relationship between these two medical examiners. Laurie in the course of her work has identified cases of sudden adult death syndrome in young healthy individuals who after twenty four hours of surgery suffer sudden cardiac death. She discovers that the deaths might be intentional – the work of a remarkably clever serial killer with a shocking motive. Then she discovers that she is carrying a genetic marker for breast cancer and might be a potential victim herself.The plot thickens when Jack and their friend Lou discovers who was the real killer. But the question is “why?”. It turned out in the end that all the victims were purposely killed because they all carried markers of serious diseases and their insurance company does not want to pay in case something happens to these people.

I have always admired Robin Cook. I learned a lot from his previous books. His plot takes its premise from the fact that health care environment today shows disregard for human life, patient care is not a priority,” that everything is decided according to vested interests”.Cook even explained what a science of Genomics is, which in simple term means the study of a flow of information on a cell. Marker might not be as thrilling as Toxin or as scary as Vector but is it a well-researched and compelling book just the same.

I’ve re-read this book lately and somehow it made me appreciate it all the more. Sure, it is a book of fiction but it reminds me of the present ordeal which I am undergoing. I never knew what those markers were for until I was tested with the CEA (colon cancer marker) and the positive result of the lab test made me aware and thirsting for more information on the net. Perhaps, in a way, it’s true. When I read Ty Bollinger’s research on how cancer treatments are being manipulated and controlled by some big and influential people, it made me think, how could they do it, capitalizing on the misfortunes of others.(less)

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Oct 17, 2012 Justin Shaum rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, 2008

Dr.’s Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery work at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME).. Laurie is most of the story.. Laurie finds she is positive for the genetic marker BRCA1 (BReast CAncer)... Laurie finds she is pregnant by Dr. Stapleton who uses sarcasm and jokes to steer away from serious issues after burying his wife and two children from an accident.. But Laurie realizes she wants a marriage and children and Jack isn’t coming around to the idea.. This while meanwhile Laurie b...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Vicki G rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: robin-cook

All of his books have been astounding, amazing and awesome.
If you work in health care, you'll like his books just b/c he never mangles medical information.
I once read a book in which the main character was an Emergency Physician. I work in Emergency Medicine (as a paramedic), so I thought I'd love the book.
I changed my mind after the author wrote that 'the patient has pinpoint pupils, and that means he's having a cocaine overdose. Cocaine enlarges pupils, b/c it turns on the sympathetic nervous...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Henri Moreaux rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: americas, crime-murder, mystery-suspense, medical

I am saddened to say this book wasn't the best. I really enjoy Robin Cook's books but Chromosome 6 was far fetched and this one, Marker, was sadly all too predictable. I'm a little worried about where the series is heading.

Also perplexing is the attitude of the Laurie Montgomery character; she previously had basically had an affair whilst she was with Jack Stapleton, but now in this book she puts the screws on jack for essentially marriage and a child, then when the conversation doesn't go her w...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book truly entertained me. These types of "medical/legal/ethical" mysteries intrigue me because I learn so much while having fun. I learned all about autopsy and medical examiners.
This book was a little predictable, but the author planned it that way. The first chapter goes into graphic description about how a sperm fertilizes an egg. It was quite informative, but may not appeal to others.
Later, one of the main characters wonders if she is pregnant. Well, it is pretty obvious that she is...more

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Oct 10, 2009 Cardiacnursee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: medical

Marker was an exciting book to read... not only was it very medically informative, but it was a bit suspenseful at times also. That's what seems to be standard in Robin Cook's books. My mom even loves reading him, as I pass them down to her and my sister. My mom is of the only patients that I've known that can read Robin Cook in the hospital. Even her doctors made some comments about that... Read him and find out why.. LOVE all of Robin Cook's books. This book touches the importance of the BRCA...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: medical-drama, summer-reading

As a Cook novel goes it was adequate. The pacing was incredibly slow and Although I liked Laurie, I found is hard to believe that an MD over the age of 40 would have such a hard time recognizing that ANY blood during a pregnancy is a bad sign.

Jack in ingratiating and thank goodness isn't the lead POV character.

I'd say more about the novel's plot but honestly, since the mystery gets resolved so very near the end of the book, there isn't much I can say without spoilers.

Overall I'd say it was an "...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

A master of the page turning medical thriller. This is the ideal book to take on a long flight but maybe not for a short hospital stay. Doctors, Jack and Laurie are having problems in their relationship, her body clock is ticking away and he is commitment phobic. A number of healthy people have died after routine operations in a central Manhattan hospital, Laurie thinks it could be the work of a serial killer, and tries to connect the series of deaths, Jack isn't so sure. The forensic examinatio...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Anne Hawn Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: medical, mystery

I thought this was one of Robin Cook's better novels. Laurie Montgomery has done 3 autopsies on young healthy people who have recently had surgery and have died unexplainedly. They seem to have recovered from the surgery with no problem, but some hours later are found dead and the autopsy doesn't reveal anything wrong. Laurie can't seem to get anyone to pay attention to her and especially not Jack Stapleton, who is more concerned with his basketball games with his "homies." When she gets her fou...more

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Jan 18, 2009 Miss Jane rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-50

One hundred pages into this I realized that I'd read it last summer. Oops! I finished it again, so I'm counting it in my "50 Books in 2009" list. So there!

This book drove me crazy because I kept wanting to scream JUST GOOGLE IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. It makes me crazy when characters sit there AT THEIR COMPUTERS thinking "Hmmm, what could MASNP mean?"

Anyway, standard Cook fare here. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Mystery solved by two medical examiners: one who breaks-all-the-rules an...more

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Jun 16, 2007 Donna rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mystery fans

Shelves: mystery-suspense

I don't have time to read 1- or 2-star books. My ratings start at 3, which means a book has to be at least good enough to finish. Cook's books, including this one, rate a 4 because of their plots. The guy knows how to hammer things together in a way that keeps those pages turning.

I'm pretty loyal to a mystery series, too, once I get to know the characters. Slipping into a world familiar from other books is like finding my old slippers in the closet and putting them on--cozy and comfortable. Thr...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Nancy Ellis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Entertaining medical thriller about a conspiracy to kill off patients by a giant healthcare management syndicate. The plot is discovered by our heroine, a medical examiner, who also happens to be trying to work out her relationship with her boyfriend, another medical examiner, because she wants to get married and have kids. She gets caught up in the conspiracy and manages to get her friends involved, etc., and almost becomes a victim herself. Sounds silly, but it really is a fun book!

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Aug 19, 2007 Sarah Sammis rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: released

Marker is the last of the Robin Cook books I read for the Medical Mystery Madness challenge. It was also a disappointment, thought not as much as Chromosome 6 and Abduction.

The book suffers from a slow and predictable plot with a ridiculous motivation for the villains behind the mysterious deaths. The cause of the deaths was easy to figure out and frankly better done in a more entertaining fashion in "The Curse of the King Kamehameha Club" (Magnum P. I. season 1, February 18, 1981). Both version...more

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May 10, 2011 Mom rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 25, 2009 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller, read-in-09

It seemed to me to be quite a long book - 544 pages. The middle and the end of the book were much quicker reads than the beginning. Even though you knew who the 'killer' was and who would be an eventual victim, Cook kept me in suspense right up to the scenes at the end, and there were parts near that end that I actually re-read.

This is the first Cook novel that I've read and from the sounds of it, Laurie and Jack have been characters in previous novels. Even though I haven't read the other Lauri...more

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May 13, 2008 Ann rated it 2 of 5 stars

Seems like Robin Cook used to be a lot better- is this because his writing is not as good, or because I am more demanding? Marker is okay- a somewhat interesting premise (healthy and fairly young patients at Manhattan General Hospital are being killed off, but I won't tell you why- that would ruin the book), but I was a bit disappointed with the character development and language. The characters seemed slow to pick up on things. I know an author needs time to develop the plot and reveal informat...more

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Dec 20, 2010 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've only read one or two of Robin Cook's other books, so I dont have much of a reference for his work. Alot of the reviews about this book complained about similiar plots and themes running through many of his books. I cant speak to those complaints. This was an entertaining read, the plot was interesting, although I could have done with out the undertones of Cook's political agenda with regards to healthcare companies. Not that I dont agree, it just felt a bit preachy. If you like medical myst...more

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May 28, 2012 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good novel with ongoing characters Laurie Montgomery and Jack Stapleton. Cook weaves the medical science witht he murder mystery, although I figured it out early on. He also feels the need to "preach" his views on managed care, insurance companies, and the US health care situaiton in general. Even though I tend to agree with his views, it gets tedious. But all in all, a fun read.

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May 14, 2011 Vanna rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was required to read this book in my biology class and I am very glad I was assigned to read this book instead of some more boring nonfiction ones. The plot had some suspense and intrigue in it, and the characters were likeable enough. However, my main complaint about the book is that it was building up for so long this suspenseful moment at the end which was quite exciting I have to say but revealed almost nothing about the big conspiracy with the insurance companies the book seemed to be lea...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Aurora rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: medically-fictitious, realistic, mysterious, twists

I read this novel around the time I had decided to enter the medical field and was exploring a lot into this genre. It was my favorite of them all, after My Sister's Keeper. The mystery in the novel combined with the medical drama as well as a dash of romance was the perfect combination. It was also my first Robin Cook novel! And the very first one I suggest to people. =) Enjoy!

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Feb 09, 2010 Pbwritr rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

Fast book. The evil perpetrator was too far on the other side. Too much glee given to her enjoyment in killing. I just can't imagine it, especially since there was never any motive given at all to turn her from a military veteran to scouting out problems for health care as a nurse to an assasin. And she was a nurse, for pete's sake, so it just doesn't jive, but it was still a good book.

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Dec 20, 2010 Crystal rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Robin Cook's medical thrillers, and this one was no exception. While very long (651 pages) it was hard to put down. It tackled the always-controversial subject of conspiracy within the managed care system and what can happen. I don't want to give too much away! :) But it was a great read, and also loved the forensics part of the book- which has always interested me. If you like thrillers, give this one a read!

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Dec 10, 2008 Kristine rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a fan of Robin Cook, I expected a great read, and a I really did enjoy the book. It was fun (can a book about death be considered fun?) to follow the mystery and along the way brush up on my medical terminology. Kind of a scary commentary on the possibilities for wickedness in this world!

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About Robin Cook

Librarian Note: Not to be confused with British novelist Robin Cook a pseudonym of Robert William Arthur Cook.

Dr. Robin Cook (born May 4, 1940 in New York City, New York) is an American doctor / novelist who writes about medicine and topics affecting public health.

He is best known for being the author who combined medical writing with the thriller genre of writing. Several of his books have been b...more

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Books by Robin Cook

Chromosome 6 (Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery, #3)

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Marker (Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery #5)

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