Toxin
Robin Cook's medical thriller about E. coli O157 in the beef supply. A cardiac surgeon's young daughter eats a hamburger, develops haemolytic uraemic syndrome and dies, and he goes after the slaughterhouse and the inspection regime that let it happen. Cook is a physician and the procedural detail is the draw. Published 1998, it arrived while contaminated-beef outbreaks were live news, and it is angrier about regulation than most of his books.