I was unfamiliar with author Chris Bohjalian, although he has apparently been a prolific author with several best sellers to his credit and is also a well-regarded playwright. This is the 2nd germs vs. humans book I have read since our current pandemic began (see also The End of October).
Wars leave behind so many casualties. In Vietnam, our deluge of agent orange not only killed people and plants but left a legacy of birth defects and...rats that are highly resistant to the things that normally kill them. Alexis, an ER doctor, and Austin, a development officer at the same hospital, have come to Vietnam for a bicycle tour. It is intended both as a vacation for them--now dating for 6 months--and an opportunity for Austin to pay homage at the place where his uncle died and his father was wounded during the war. He goes off on a solo ride to that end, leaving Alexis to go with the bike tour. But Austin does not come back that night and his body is not found until the next day, apparently the victim of a hit and run. Alexis finds several anomalies in the coroner's report and the circumstances of Austin's death. But all her efforts to figure out where Austin was in the intervening hours turn up only a couple of high energy gel packs, ostensibly dropped on the road he took. When the local FBI representative gets involved, Alexis learns that Austin's story about his uncle and father are not true and she begins to wonder what else he might have been lying about.
She continues to investigate after returning home to New York City and even hires a private investigator to help her. What they uncover is a deadly plan to sell mutated plague pathogens to the highest bidder. Fast paced with good character and setting development. Recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment