by Lawrence Wright
Good Reads Description:
In this riveting medical thriller–from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author–Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees.
At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons–microbiologist, epidemiologist–travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city… A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare… already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic… Henry’s wife Jill and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta… and the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions–scientific, religious, governmental–and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.
Helen Says: 🤓🤓1/2
Art imitates life in this novel about a global pandemic. I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more had it not been for the eerie timing of it’s release – April, 2020. I am going to be sexist in my review of this book. This is a man’s book…lots of intense medical details, facts and some espionage…I keep thinking that I should give it to my dad when I finished it. A lot of research went into this novel, and the author deserves credit for it. The story line was similar to a Michael Crichton novel. I enjoyed it (kind of 😕) but I didn’t love it. Fun fact: The character Jill (the wife) was from Wilmington, NC.
Holly says: 🤓🤓🤓
A good, but not great, read that might be a little too close to today’s reality. I probably would have enjoyed this book more had I not had enough global pandemic in real life – the timing is a little eerie. Lots of medical and governmental details that I tried to skim over, but DON”T skim too much because you will miss something crucial to the story. I kept thinking Tom Clancy and Robin Cook meet The Hot Zone – not a criticism at all, just sayin’ – if you are a fan of those things, you will probably enjoy this too.
Helen and Holly Hit the Books 