Robin Cook is an author I've always wanted to read - who doesn't look a good medical thriller about an unknown virus sweeping through the city? Unfortunately, the premise was the best part of this one; the characters were the downfall of this one. They all had very stilted language and the writing seemed...off in some chapters. One character said "Nice boy," which was followed up by Robin Cook explaining how that 'was a quote from David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel, when asked about Ariel Sharon." Strange and seemingly out of nowhere with nothing to do with the text. The main character was by far the worst though: he only seemed to be capable of speaking sarcastically. No matter the situation. What sealed the deal for me though, was the phrase 'b-ball court.' It was written in the narration, not a character's voice. So odd.

Pandemic by Robin Cook is the 11th book in his Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery series. This is my first book in this series, but it read very well as a standalone. I did enjoy this book, but I also had some mixed feelings, which I will go into later.

After a healthy young woman collapses on a train and immediately dies, she ends up on the autopsy table of Dr. Jack Stapleton, our hero. Jack, who is widely respected in his field, notices some strange things when doing the autopsy. The woman in question had a heart transplant a few months ago, but her heart was in perfect condition; the organs of the deceased show signs of an unknown virus. Jack becomes deeply involved in trying to determine the cause of death, as well as investigating who the deceased young woman was.
Jack was also warned by his wife, Laurie (his boss) not to involve CDC and other government organizations until he gets more decisive evidence that this could be a dangerous pandemic. The trails lead to a high tech successful hospital run by a wealthy Chinese businessman and hospital CEP, who has developed amazing results in organ transplants using bio technology. The further Jack goes in his investigation, with some more similar deaths, he finds himself in dangerous situations that put his own life in danger. There are betrayals, with a few twists and turns. I will not give spoilers so not to ruin the story.

Not having read the other books in this series, I did read that Jack was well liked, but I must admit that for the most part, he did come across as surly, rude, ill mannered pretty much to everyone, except some friends. This caused me to not really like the character too much, though he was brilliant.
What follows is an exciting last third of the book, where Jack despite everyone trying to stop him, gets closer to the truth. However, I thought there were too many medical and scientific details, which can cause you to get lost easily.

Pandemic was a good story and very well written by Robin Cook. If you enjoy medical thrillers, with detailed descriptions, then I suggest you read Pandemic.