Helpful Score: 2
In The Deadliest Strain, a virus of unknown origin appears in seemingly random locations. The government suspects it is a biological weapon, and enlists the help of a Kurdish scientist who for five years has been imprisoned in a Guantanamo-like facility.
The Deadliest Strain reads like a cross between a Michael Palmer medical thriller and a Thousand Splendid Sons. The character of the Kurdish scientist and her back story is engaging and surprisingly touching. Less effective is the thriller aspect, and that plot line's ending is anticlimactic. This book is still an enjoyable read, and the authors (Coffey is actually a husband and wife team) deserve credit for the research they obviously did and for giving this thriller some brains and heart.
The Deadliest Strain reads like a cross between a Michael Palmer medical thriller and a Thousand Splendid Sons. The character of the Kurdish scientist and her back story is engaging and surprisingly touching. Less effective is the thriller aspect, and that plot line's ending is anticlimactic. This book is still an enjoyable read, and the authors (Coffey is actually a husband and wife team) deserve credit for the research they obviously did and for giving this thriller some brains and heart.
