Customer Reviews

The Deadliest Strain

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The premise is a flesh eating disease has struck the US in what appears to be a terrorist attack. The DNA of the quick(like hours) acting disease is similar to one found at a lab in Iraq early in the war. As luck would have it the US Gov't has the DR found at this lab in a prison in Afghanistan and a team is sent to talk with HER. But when the lead investigator gets there he begins to have doubts as to her involvement as well as doubts about her. As the US health team races from one horrific incident of death to another caused by the disease trying to find the common denominator, the team with the DR leaves Afghanistan to travel to Northern Iraq, home to the Kurds and then into Iran for answers.

To say more would spoil it for the reader. but the story is beautifully written with strong emotions, and is poignant in its disclosure of the effects of governments' actions on the people who are the innocent victims in political wars. The pace is a fast roller coaster ride as each event pushed the reader to an incredibly satisfying conclusion, truly have the tissues ready. Reading the Author's note will make it clear why this book was a labor of love for her. Here's hoping we hear more from Coffey in future offerings about these two wonderfully developed protagonists THE DEADLIEST STRAIN is a rich tale of devotion to job, family and culture.

Jan Coffey has entered brave new ground with THE DEADLIEST STRAIN and is a must read.

Americans begin dying from a flesh eating disease which can kill within minutes. American intelligence agencies are desperately trying to determine how the disease is spread, what it is, and how to cure it.

Meanwhile a scientist, Dr. Rohaf Banaz, has been "detained" in a number of American prisons throughout the world for five years. These are "black" prisons meaning civilians do not know who has been taken, where they are, how to communicate with the "detainees" or even if they are dead or alive. What the jailers do not know is that the woman they have mistreated (that's putting it nicely) for five years is actually the sister of Dr. Rohaf Banaz, Dr. Fahimah Banaz.

When Fahimah is released into the custody of a Homeland Security scientist, Austyn Newman, he figures out that she is not Rahaf and they begin a journey to find the missing Rahaf who has been searching for a cure to the bacteria she inadvertently created.

This book gives a horrifying view into the "detention" of men and women who "are suspected of having ties to suspected terrorists". They are stripped of all civil rights, are held in deplorable conditions, and are assumed "guilty until proven innocent" which flies in the face of all America represents. The fact that only a few have ever been charged out of the hundreds taken is telling. As Fahimah said "we are all victims of the actions of those who govern our countries".

I found the information about the Kurds, their pain and triumph, their customs and traditions, their strength and how they had literally risen out of the ashes fascinating and uplifting. We tend to think of Iraqi women as uneducated, downtrodden, forced to hide behind veils. While that may be true in many cases it's an inaccurate stereotype for others, particularly the women of Kurdistan. This was a good book but the ending was a little sad.

Looking for a hot, sexy romantic suspense? Look elsewhere. "The Deadliest Strain" is published by Mira, and Jan Coffey has turned out some good romantic suspense novels. But this book is a thriller first. The main protagonists, the imprisoned Dr Banaz and the immunologist sent to draw out her secrets, do develop a deep and touching attachment. But without giving away the plot, let me tell you not to expect passionate escapades.

What you will find is a complex and original plot, well-drawn characters, gripping suspense and a rich tangle of questions. The plot raises many questions about US policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, including secret CIA prisons. President Penn, elected in Coffey's previous work, "Silent Waters," is back and wrestling with the balance between national security and national integrity. If you found "Silent Waters" to be "political propaganda," as one reviewer did, you probably won't like "The Deadliest Strain" any better, but I have to say I loved them both.

I judge a book partly by how quick I read through it. This one I read in 12 hours. Nikoo and Jim McGoldrick have put together a real page-turner that I could not put down. It isn't non-stop action, but it's non-stop suspense as you try to work through what is happening as you read the pages. I appreciated the factual insight into Kurdish culture and liked the way it was woven into the storyline. I will definitely be reading more books by this husband/wife duo who goes by the pseudonym of Jan Coffey.

The family of four and their dog were on vacation on an isolated island in Moosehead Lake, Maine with only one other family of three and a canine there. One week later the seven on the island, the owner of the two cabins, and two emergency technicians are dead as well as the two dogs. They are victims of extremely rapid necrotizing fasciitis bacteria that ate their organs in under 24 hours. Fear is that the disease will continue to concentrically spread wider as no one knows how it got there in such an isolated locale or by whom, and worse how to stop it as Homeland Security assumes a bioterrorist attack occurred.

The hope for a cure resides in a CIA secret prison. Kurd Dr. Rahaf Banaz accidentally invented the bacteria weapon and risked her life to find an antidote. The CIA holds her indefinitely, but she remains locked inside her head not willing to communicate with anyone. HSD Intel Officer and offensive biological weapons expert Austyn Newman hope to persuade the unresponsive Rahaf into helping them. There are only three problems with their scenario. First terrorists want the deadly bacteria to use on large populations; second there is no known cure; and third the female prisoner incarcerated by the CIA is not Rahaf, but instead is her non scientist sister Fahimah.

This is an exhilarating action-packed thriller that grips the audience the moment that the dog Trouble finds the decomposed corpses of the other vacationing family and never slows down until the climax. The scenario is frightening and worse plausible, especially as innocent people and the canines are the early victims. Fans will find THE DEADLIEST STRAIN fascinating while praying biological warfare never comes to pass. Although the ending seems too contrived, no one will leisurely be drinking coffee while reading this spine-tingling tale.

Harriet Klausner

I really enjoyed the first half of this book with the mounting medical crisis which is apparently planned by terrorists. The hunt is on for a Kurdish medical doctor who was a university researcher in Iraq who identified the microbe at issue and also found an antidote for it. But if she is the one who did it, how could she have since she has been in an American black ops prison for the last five years? Or has she? It turns out she had a university professor sister in political science. Could the wrong sister have been kept in prison while the other sister became a biological terrorist? While these questions are pending, more and more people are dropping dead of a flesh eating disease which is highly contagious. This is all in the first half.

The problem is that the author has a very inept way of going about resolving these problems. I liked none of the resolutions and had more questions than answers by the end of the book. The author even failed to show if and who were the actual bio terrorists. So at half point the book goes badly off course and then completely tanks.

The book also toys with becoming a love story off and on throughout the book. It doesn't work and will leave the reader who was looking for even an arc of development there unsatisfied.

One of the most promising first halves I've ever read followed by one of the second halves that is the absolute worst. Personally I think this subgenre, thriller-suspense is being dreadfully overwritten today and a lot of the writers in the field don't belong in it. Perhaps book publishers are pushing them out of other writing genres and into this genre. It sure seems like it.

I thought the dynamics of the story line and its characters were fantastic and kept my interest throughout the book. I love medical mysteries and this one did not disappoint. Fascinating throughout.

The eighth novel in Jim and Nikoo McGoldrick's popular Jan Coffey series imagines a post-9/11 world of danger and paralyzing, if not always warranted, fear. It's a world of microbiology research labs funded by global corporations and national governments of varying competence and moral intent. The "deadliest strain" of the title is a flesh-eating microbe that induces rapid death, decomposition and contagion. When several victims of the infection are discovered near Portland, Maine, the US Homeland Security Agency suspects terrorism. Deadly Strain is an intriguing story with dramatic twists, and vibrant, if mostly cinema-style, characters [including the African-American US President John Penn, introduced in Coffey's earlier book, Silent Waters].

The book is described as a biological thriller, in reality it is a rambling history of the Kurdish people under Saddam's regime. The "deadliest strain" is an after thought, and makes up about a quarter of the book. The rest follows an Iraqi scientist who explains in great detail the horrors the Kurds experienced. As an example, a chapter describing the killer strain is 7 pages, a discussion of documents needed to cross the Iraqi border goes on for 10 pages. Not to mention the description of buying clothes, drinking tea, and telling jokes that just adds to the 400 pages of non-story. Will not read another Jan Coffey book.

I have read several other Jan Coffey books and this is not up to par with the others that i have read. Each time the pace would pick up they would return to the 2 protagonists and it would slow back down to a snail's pace. It was a good premise, but the book didn't live up to it.