Outbreak

Un’agghiacciante incursione nel lato più oscuro dell’assistenza sanitaria, nel fatidico incrocio tra il valore supremo dell’esistenza umana e i cinici interessi del mondo finanziario, capace di subordinare la vita e la morte alla pericolosa seduzione del denaro. Dopo lunghi anni trascorsi nei corridoi di un grande ospedale di Boston, Angela e David Wilson, un’affiatata coppia di medici, decidono di abbandonare la frenesia della metropoli per trasferirsi, con la figlioletta Nikki gracile e malata, in campagna, in una tranquilla cittadina del Vermont. La bellezza e la serenità del luogo, insieme all’affettuosa accoglienza dei suoi abitanti, appaiono un sogno divenuto realtà, destinato a infondere un’ondata di entusiasmo alle loro esistenze: verdi distese di prati, laghi cristallini incastonati in una cornice incantevole di montagne, al posto dell’inquinamento e della criminalità della città. E, nello stesso tempo, si profila per entrambi i coniugi la possibilità di lavorare in un centro gestito in modo dinamico e moderno, dotato di attrezzature all’avanguardia. Ma dopo il primo magnifico, romantico autunno, a Bartlet comincia a profilarsi un paesaggio spoglio e desolato, che rivela, dietro i tristi scheletri degli alberi, oscure e macabre macchinazioni...

A poco a poco, poi a un ritmo sempre più rapido, il paradiso terrestre dei Wilson si sgretola: numerosi pazienti con strani sintomi cominciano a morire misteriosamente, inquietanti trame si nascondono nelle stanze del loro ospedale; un incubo mortale li minaccia... Coinvolti in un sistema medico criminale, nel quale la polizia non intende indagare, Angela e David dovranno combattere con le loro sole forze per non essere travolti dall’orrore e salvaguardare così la felicità della loro famiglia.

A series of unexplained deaths in foreign hospitals sends an idealistic UCLA medical student on a desperate search for answers in this chilling tale from the master of the medical thriller.

Jennifer Hernandez is a fourth-year medical student at UCLA, just beginning an elective in general surgery, whose world is shattered during a break in an otherwise ordinary day. While relaxing in the surgical lounge of L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she half listens to a TV segment on medical tourism: first-world citizens traveling to third-world countries for surgery. But when she hears her beloved grandmother’s name mentioned, Jennifer’s heart nearly stops: the CNN reporter says that Maria Hernandez has died, a day after undergoing a hip replacement in New Delhi’s Queen Victoria Hospital.

Maria had raised Jennifer and her brothers from infancy, and the bond between grandmother and granddaughter was unbreakable. Still, the news that Maria traveled to India is a shock to Jennifer, until she realizes that it was the only viable option for the hardworking yet uninsured woman.

Devastated, and desperate for answers, Jennifer takes emergency leave from school and heads to India, where relations with local officials go from sympathetic to sour as she pushes for more information. With revelations of other unexplained deaths compounded by pressure from Indian hospital officials for hasty cremations, Jennifer reaches out to her mentor, New York City medical examiner Dr. Laurie Montgomery, who has her own deep connection to Maria.

Laurie, along with her husband, Dr. Jack Stapleton, rushes to the younger woman’s side, and discovers a sophisticated medical facility with little margin for error. As the death count grows, so do the questions, leading Laurie and Jennifer to unveil a sinister, multilayered conspiracy of global proportions.

With her young son’s potentially fatal neuroblastoma in complete remission, New York City medical examiner Laurie Montgomery returns to work at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, where she’s been employed for more than two decades. Worried about whether she still has what it takes after so much time away, Laurie finds her first case back to be a dangerous puzzler of the highest order, involving organized crime and two start-up biotech companies caught in a zero-sum game. Against the advice of her colleagues and her husband, fellow medical examiner Jack Stapleton, Laurie is determined to solve the mystery the case comes to represent.

Satoshi Machita, a former Kyoto University researcher, is set to own a valuable patent controlling pluripotent stem cells destined to spark a trillion-dollar industry of regenerative medicine. When he dies on a crowded New York subway platform, Laurie must decide whether his death was natural — or something fiendish.

Behind the scenes, there are people who would like to see Laurie as far away from the investigation as possible. Despite threats against her, Laurie presses on, until they extend to the person she loves most in the world: her son, JJ. Suddenly Laurie must face solving the crime — and saving her son’s life.