Dr. Aria Nichols is a pathology resident at the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner. She is bored with her assignments as most of the time she is made to just stand around and watch procedures.

But that all changes when Aria is allowed to be the prosector on the autopsy of Kera Jacobsen, a social worker who appears to be the victim of a drug overdose. She soon discovers that Kera was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. This sparks Aria’s imagination and reinforces her strong dislike of men as she was abused and mistreated by both her father and her stepfather.

"[Cook] has penned a good story here, with plenty of mystery, intrigue and subplots to complement the main plot, as well as numerous fleshed-out characters to carry out the action in this timely medical thriller."

Convinced that the baby’s father contributed to Kera’s death, Aria becomes determined to locate him and bring him to justice. Chief Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery gives Aria permission to do just that and hopes it will boost her interest in pathology.

Pathologists do their best to determine the cause of death and assist investigators in tracking down suspects in apparent murder cases. With this in mind, Aria gets in touch with Madison Bryant, Kera’s friend and fellow social worker, who suggests that she use genealogic DNA databases to help identify the father. The plan is for Aria to work with a start-up ancestry website that will trace the fetus’s DNA back to likely male relatives.

But just when it seems that some major headway is being made in this endeavor, Madison winds up in the morgue, also from an apparent drug overdose. Clearly, something else is going on here. Will Aria be able to solve the mystery, or has she put herself in harm’s way?

Robin Cook is a well-known, bestselling author with a long list of publishing credits to his name. Although his writing style is often stilted, he has penned a good story here, with plenty of mystery, intrigue and subplots to complement the main plot, as well as numerous fleshed-out characters to carry out the action in this timely medical thriller.