Review: Fantastic!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 19, 2012
Another Ken McClure novel that absolutely entertained, gripped, thrilled and pleasured me. It has a prologue that is so informative (non-fictional), that the price of the book could be justified solely for it.As with the author's writing, it is simple, lucid, classical and very smooth. I keep repeating this in most of my reviews of his books, and say so again that his style of English prose writing is something that almost seems to be a misfit for a thriller, and yet it does its job with elan. Thrillers are typically nowadays associated with high adrenalin, high octane sequence of events, but McClure's style is a throwback to another time, but still equally engaging.As for this novel's story and plot, Steven Dunbar (an ex-defence doctor, now an investigator with government agency) races against time to deduce a possible terrorist attack using a virus. He and his colleagues have only limited time to help develop a much needed vaccine, and stop fundamentalists from using a virus believed to be long extinct as a biological weapon. It all starts as an attack on an animal lab testing facility, seemingly by animal rights activists. Some primates being used for research and containing potentially deadly and contagious virus are let loose. These events start a cycle of events that eventually show a much sinister plan.Overall, I found the novel and the plot very believable and to a large extent, scary! It was gripping, interesting and informative without being preachy or deviating from the flow of the story. The only reason I am rating is a 4 and not 5 stars is because the plot became predictable in the last 40 pages or so, and the ending was too sudden and abrupt.