Helpful Score: 4
A deadly virus is being delivered to chosen victims, Maggie comes into contact with one of them, will be she be infected and survive? Such a scary thing to think about happening and hopefully in our lifetime it won't, Alex Kava writes a riveting account of the effects of this virus, you get so glued to the pages you can't put it down.
Helpful Score: 3
Serial murder by Ebola virus: now there's a chilling premise for a thriller. Well-written, with the credibility and plot twists to keep you turning pages; I'll be looking for more in this series.
Helpful Score: 2
Another good installment of the Maggie O'Dell series, quick read but good story.
Helpful Score: 1
After reading all of the O'Dell books that are currently out (1-8 so far) this has been my favorite. There was such a sense of dread as to the outcome of the situation and characters that kept pulling me to read endlessly. I loved the topic and twist of this book and it kept my feverishly reading!
The book was great, but a little difficult to read during the Covid pandemic. The story centers around Ebola, an historically bad virus.
When a doughnut box on Assistant Director Cunningham's desk is found nobody thinks it might have been left by an intruder at Quantico headquarters. Instead they find find a note hidden under the doughnuts: The note announces a crash at a certain time and a certain point.
Rushing for help they trap into an almost invisible trap. The house they enter is occupied by a mother and her little daughter. The child looks neglected, the mother lies blood gurgling in her blood drenched bed. Both agents instantly know there is no bomb going to explode but that the mother and the child have been exposed to a biological, possibly highly infectious agent. When the little girl vomits she splatters all over Cunningham and partly over Maggie.
The agents destiny seems to be defined when the Army arrives and takes them to the nearest USAMRID center and their containment hospital.
If it weren't for Maggie all the evidence would have been lost in the house. In a snap decision she bags a manila envelope from the mothers desk and hides it under her waistband.
With her and Cunningham locked away Tully stays outside worrying about his co-workers her considers his friends. With little evidence and not much to find on the doughnut note he pretty much doesn't know where to begin his investigations while Maggie after begging receives a laptop to at least do a little research about the return address on her envelope.
During this she receives the threatening diagnosis that she and Cunningham have been
exposed to Ebola Zaire, the worst and deadliest strain of all known Ebola viruses and that Cunningham seems to be infected while Maggie's blood stays clean.
-
I know a lot about viruses and have read a lot of reference about this topic so I might judge that Mrs. Kava did a fine research job and explained the facts about Ebola very nice and understandable for people who have never gone into this topic.
However, the plot seems to have suffered from it or shortened by the publisher.
The actual investigation to find the killer fells short and in the end leaves a few questions and loose ends.
The writing style very much reminded me of Whitewash but this time it didn't hurt the book as much.
There are a lot of possible infected people mentioned, but Mrs. Kava didn't close the loop on those. Also there was a quarantined hospital that receives a not much tested unproved vaccine. I figure she didn't close the loop on the later because the vaccine is real and it hasn't been tested on a lot of humans yet.
To come to a conclusion:
Yes, I liked it but I believe people that aren't too interested to read about pandemics, filoviruses and containment procedures might not be as interested as I am. Overall for me it was fluent up until the end which I probably didn't get right in the first place because I was distracted about all the loose ends and disappointed that the end was such uneventful.
Overall the book is very different from the other Maggie O'Dell novels.
Rushing for help they trap into an almost invisible trap. The house they enter is occupied by a mother and her little daughter. The child looks neglected, the mother lies blood gurgling in her blood drenched bed. Both agents instantly know there is no bomb going to explode but that the mother and the child have been exposed to a biological, possibly highly infectious agent. When the little girl vomits she splatters all over Cunningham and partly over Maggie.
The agents destiny seems to be defined when the Army arrives and takes them to the nearest USAMRID center and their containment hospital.
If it weren't for Maggie all the evidence would have been lost in the house. In a snap decision she bags a manila envelope from the mothers desk and hides it under her waistband.
With her and Cunningham locked away Tully stays outside worrying about his co-workers her considers his friends. With little evidence and not much to find on the doughnut note he pretty much doesn't know where to begin his investigations while Maggie after begging receives a laptop to at least do a little research about the return address on her envelope.
During this she receives the threatening diagnosis that she and Cunningham have been
exposed to Ebola Zaire, the worst and deadliest strain of all known Ebola viruses and that Cunningham seems to be infected while Maggie's blood stays clean.
-
I know a lot about viruses and have read a lot of reference about this topic so I might judge that Mrs. Kava did a fine research job and explained the facts about Ebola very nice and understandable for people who have never gone into this topic.
However, the plot seems to have suffered from it or shortened by the publisher.
The actual investigation to find the killer fells short and in the end leaves a few questions and loose ends.
The writing style very much reminded me of Whitewash but this time it didn't hurt the book as much.
There are a lot of possible infected people mentioned, but Mrs. Kava didn't close the loop on those. Also there was a quarantined hospital that receives a not much tested unproved vaccine. I figure she didn't close the loop on the later because the vaccine is real and it hasn't been tested on a lot of humans yet.
To come to a conclusion:
Yes, I liked it but I believe people that aren't too interested to read about pandemics, filoviruses and containment procedures might not be as interested as I am. Overall for me it was fluent up until the end which I probably didn't get right in the first place because I was distracted about all the loose ends and disappointed that the end was such uneventful.
Overall the book is very different from the other Maggie O'Dell novels.
Probably the best Maggie O'Dell books. It wraps up way to quickly at the end but most of them do. This one too wraps up neatly, it was as if 30 pages until the end we had no idea and then poof it is answered and explained nicely in the reamining 30 pages, but that being said, it is worth reading.
This was a page turner. Very difficult to put down. Alex Kava is a very talented writer who does not disappoint. I highly recommend this book. It will keep you up late reading it.
Another five star for Kava!!!!!
Another five star for Kava!!!!!
enjoyed and will continue reading this thriller type author
The FBI receives a mysterious note stating that there will be a crash today. FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell and Assistant Director Kyle Cunningham hurry to a family home to find a little girl left on her own...her mother in bed, deathly ill. Maggie soon discovers that they have been exposed to a virus. Something that could kill many people if left unchecked. Put in quarantine, Maggie discovers that the perpetrator has left clues that tie to some of the FBI's biggest cases, including the Anthrax murders, the Tylenol poisonings, and the Beltway Snipers.
This is the 6th book in the Maggie O'Dell series. The storyline certainly kept me interested. Both Maggie and Tully got to do their profiling which helped solve the mystery. I had a problem with the way Maggie handled one piece of evidence. If this were a real case, she would most likely be fired. It really threw me out of the story for a while. My rating: 4 Stars.
This is the 6th book in the Maggie O'Dell series. The storyline certainly kept me interested. Both Maggie and Tully got to do their profiling which helped solve the mystery. I had a problem with the way Maggie handled one piece of evidence. If this were a real case, she would most likely be fired. It really threw me out of the story for a while. My rating: 4 Stars.
Well written and an easy read.
