Resistant
Dr. Lou Welcome is a fine Boston emergency-room physician who also happens to be a recovering addict. He is asked to cover for his boss at a medical conference in Atlanta, and takes his best friend, Cap, along. While out trail running, Cap severely injures his leg on a slippery slope; Lou manages to get him to the hospital, but that’s just the beginning of Cap’s problems. He picks up a new bug, nicknamed the Doomsday Germ by the press, while hospitalized. Turns out a right-wing domestic terrorist group created the germ, which they had planned on using to blackmail the U.S. government into shutting down all entitlement programs. But the flesh-eating bacteria grew out of control and became completely resistant to all known treatments, including the cure the terrorists thought they possessed. Even the Center for Disease Control is stumped. The FBI gets involved, and the race between the government and the terrorists to find a cure is on. Medical-thriller fans of all stripes will find much to enjoy here. Unfortunately, the author died in late 2013; whether there are any more books in the pipeline is anyone’s guess. --Stacy Alesi