Jack Stapleton is a fictional pathologist, who lives in New York. Jack Stapleton features as the protagonist in many of Robin Cook's novels which have medical themes. His wife and daughter are known to have been killed in an air crash. Primarily an ophthalmologist, he is forced to re enter medical school and take up pathology as his area of specialisation. Along with co-worker, Laurie Montgomery who eventually becomes his wife, he has investigated many mysteries that have showed up on their autopsy tables. He has a new kid John Jr. whom Laurie and Jack call JJ. Jack and Laurie together solve many mysteries that unfold thus spreading public awareness in all such situations.

Novels featured in

Jack Stapleton is a main character in the following Robin Cook novels (in publication order):

• Contagion (novel)
  Contagion (novel)
  Contagion is a medical thriller written by Dr. Robin Cook. In the story, a deadly epidemic of three different rare diseases is spread by design, by an HMO at the center of the epidemic....
  
   1995
• Chromosome 6 (novel)
  Chromosome 6 (novel)
  Chromosome 6 is a 1997 science fiction novel by the American novelist Robin Cook. It follows a minor forensic pathologist, Dr. Jack Stapleton, as he and Dr. Laurie Montgomery, another forensic pathologist, try to identify a badly mutilated body with various parts missing. On the other side of the...
  
   1997
• Vector (novel)
  Vector (novel)
  Vector is the 1999 suspense thriller book written by Robin Cook.-Plot summary:New York City cab driver Yuri Davydov is a disgruntled Russian émigré poised to lash out at the adoptive nation he believes has denied him the American Dream...
  
   1999
• Marker (novel)
  Marker (novel)
  Marker is a 2005 thriller novel by Robin Cook.It is a story around mysterious deaths investigated by Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery, characters from previous novels by Cook....
  
   2005
• Crisis (novel)
  Crisis (novel)
  Crisis is a medical thriller written by Dr. Robin Cook.-Plot summary:When Dr. Craig Bowman is served with a summons for medical malpractice, he's shocked, enraged, and more than a little humiliated. A devoted physician who works continuously in the service of others, he endured grueling years of...
  
   2006
• Critical (novel)
  Critical (novel)
  Critical is a medical thriller written by Dr. Robin Cook.-Plot summary:Angela Dawson, M.D., M.B.A. appears to have it all: at the age of thirty-seven, she owns a fabulous New York City apartment, a stunning seaside house on Nantucket, and enjoys the perks of her prosperous lifestyle...
  
  2008
• Foreign Body (novel) 2009
• Intervention (novel) 2009
• Cure (novel) 2010