The First Horseman [Large Print] [Hardcover]

John Case (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1998

In the Book of Revelations, the Four Horsemen herald the arrival of the Apocalypse. When the First Horseman thunders forth, pestilence will spread throughout the land. For the First Horseman is Plague . . . The Spanish Flu killed thirty million people worldwide in 1918. Now with history threatening to repeat itself, a scientific expedition speeds toward a remote island in the Arctic Sea to recover strains of the lethal virus preserved under layers of ice. For Washington Post reporter Frank Daly, it is the story of a lifetime. But his plan to join the expedition is ruined by a ferocious storm that delays him. And when he meets up with the ship upon its return to port in Norway, it is clear something has gone wrong. Fear haunts the faces of the crew. No one will talk. And someone wants Daly to stop asking questions.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The fictional bioterror of Richard Preston's The Cobra Event was scary enough, but The First Horseman is based on the real Spanish flu, a hideous virus that killed over 20 million people in 1918. From the opening pages, this second novel by investigative reporter John Case (author of The Genesis Code) thrusts readers into the thick of a rapid-fire plot. In New York, a man and a woman are murdered at their home by a cult whose motivations remain mysterious. Immediately, the action shifts to Tasi-ko, North Korea, where a medical worker flees to the mountains to escape a disease that has decimated his village. While he looks on from his hiding spot, North Korean soldiers pour into Tasi-ko and incinerate it and all of its suffering inhabitants. The CIA investigates the events at Tasi-ko, and realizing that the disease could well be a hybrid Spanish flu being tested as a biological weapon, recruits a team of American scientists to uncover the only known sample of the 1918 pandemic--which is frozen into the bodies of miners buried in the Arctic. From there the novel traces scientists Anne Adair and Benton Kicklighter on their expedition to the frozen town of Kopervik to uncover the miners' corpses. Not knowing that the CIA is behind Adair and Kicklighter's work, Washington Post reporter Frank Daly follows their story. When the scientists return empty-handed, though, he begins to suspect that a medical curiosity is on the verge of becoming a global catastrophe.

The strength of the novel is the eerie suspense that Case sustains by revealing only enough about the Korean plot and the Temple of Light cult to keep the reader fully engaged and wanting more. While Case doesn't spend much time delving into the lives and motivations of his characters, the Spanish flu is the real star. Case propels the novel with the constant reminder that a new plague is on the verge of exploding, and his several enigmatic subplots keep you turning the pages and praying that this is only fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Recent reports that the 1918 flu virus, source of history's most lethal pandemic, might be preserved inside the bodies of five Norwegian miners buried beneath the permafrost on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen make this novel especially timely. Moving in dated chapters through the spring into the summer months of 1998, this tense thriller turns that story into a "secular apocalypse," which begins when a North Korean medical officer flees across the DMZ to report that his isolated village was first devastated by a strange sickness, then destroyed and completely buried by the military. A team of American microbiologists, whose application to exhume the Spitsbergen bodies has been denied, suddenly finds its expedition funded by a foundation from which they hadn't even sought money. Frank Daly, a Washington Post reporter scheduled to join the expedition, is grounded in Archangel, and when he meets the icebreaker Rex Mundi on its return to Norway, he finds the pier closed and no one from the expedition willing to talk to him?a sure incentive for any true reporter to pursue the story to the death, which Daly very nearly does. Although the setup is in some ways more gripping than the action payoff of the novel's second half, pseudonymous D.C. reporter Case (The Gemini Code) breathes excitement into his topical story. Especially memorable is the microwave death of one character, leaving behind just a tiny handful of soot.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 584 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786216190
• ISBN-13: 978-0786216192
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,513,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHO IS JOHN CASE?, October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The First Horseman (Mass Market Paperback)

Whoever he may be, he ranks with Michel Creighton and Robin Cook. His mixture of fact with fiction gives his story both suspense and credibility. There really was an expedition to Norway to hunt for the virus. The 1918 flu was pandemic. My 90 year old grandmother lived through it and to her flu equals death. She would no sooner take a flu vaccine then I would an AIDS vaccine. Anyone who has worried about biological terroism should read this book. Lets just hope Saddam Hussain doesn't get hold of the copy. As for those who compain about this not being a "thriller" they must be addicted to gun battles and car chases. This is a psychological thriller based on the very real capabilities of anthrax brewing terrorists. If you want blood, gore and ridiculous story lines go back to Dean Koontz.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're going to choose mainstream, July 31, 2000

By 

Keith Dougherty "klayy" (Ossining, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Horseman (Mass Market Paperback)

If you're going to skip the classics and look for a mainstream type of book you might as well look for something by John case. I find his books to be a step above your everyday Grisham and James Patterson novels. This book touches on a very real and dangerous topic in today's world. Biochemical warfare is not talked about much by the government because the results of which would be devastating. Overall with all the books i've ever read I would probably drop this rating to a three.... but I choose to rate books based on the type of books they are; this would make a good tavel type of book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Genesis Code, November 20, 1999

By 

Will Francis (Western USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First Horseman (Mass Market Paperback)

Genesis Code gripped me from the beginning and kept me. Each chapter drew me to the next. The First Horseman had an intriguing intro., but then I just couldn't get Op-Center out of my mind. Clancy makes me believe he knows what he's talking about. I come to trust him. He makes me feel that he's been in the rooms, he's seen the files, and he's seen the technology. I also got that sensation in Case's Genesis Code, but The First Horseman made me long for some character depth from the beginning, and wish that I hadn't started the book. I was very dissapointed that I couldn't get Clancy out of my mind.

Oh, and what's this with the "F" word? Why so much? Use it this much, and the characters become weak. Better word choice makes for more intelligent and deep characters.