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A review by book_concierge
The Cobra Event by Richard Preston
4.0
It begins when a New York City teenager has a seizure in class and dies shortly after. CDC scientist Alice Austen is dispatched to observe the autopsy and try to determine if this is an infectious agent. She quickly determines that this is not an accident but an act of terrorism. A deranged, disgraced biotechnician is intent on releasing the deadly Cobra virus in New York, to kill as many “useless humans” as possible.
This is a great thriller, that kept me enthralled and turning pages as quickly as I could. I’d read Preston’s nonfiction bestsellers: The Hot Zone and The Demon In the Freezer, so I knew he had the research background to make this a very plausible scenario. Reading it in the era of COVID19 just makes it that much more frightening, and interesting. I loved the details on how the teams of scientists, public health officials and FBI agents worked to decipher the clues.
If you’re at all squeamish you might want to skip some of the autopsy scenes.
This is a great thriller, that kept me enthralled and turning pages as quickly as I could. I’d read Preston’s nonfiction bestsellers: The Hot Zone and The Demon In the Freezer, so I knew he had the research background to make this a very plausible scenario. Reading it in the era of COVID19 just makes it that much more frightening, and interesting. I loved the details on how the teams of scientists, public health officials and FBI agents worked to decipher the clues.
If you’re at all squeamish you might want to skip some of the autopsy scenes.