The Jihad Virus: A Novel [Paperback]

Thomas Hopp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2004

DNA, The Code of Life --and Death. A Deadly Microbe. When a U.S. Customs inspector at the Canadian border succumbs to a fatal viral infection, a terrifying fear becomes reality. Someone has smuggled a devastating, genetically altered strain of smallpox virus into the country. But where is it? And just how deadly might it be? A Master Terrorist. Sheik Abdul-Ghazi, oil billionaire turned terrorist, is the mastermind of a plot to spread a modern plague, killing millions. He and his jihadi zealots are holed up on a remote western ranch, preparing to unleash their nightmare weapon on American cities... A Beautiful Woman. Jameela Noori, Abdul-Ghazi's Egyptian-born Arabian horse trainer, may be the consummate blend of loveliness and treachery. Or is she the weak link in a diabolical scheme? The Greatest Mind Since Sherlock Holmes. As the new plague's first victims die, brilliant vaccine researcher, Dr. Peyton McKean, is enlisted by the Centers For Disease Control to track down the source of the virus and find a cure. From his lab to the highway, to a horseback chase in a hail of bullets, McKean brings to bear his keen intellect and the boldness of a born adventurer. But overcoming this threat will take more than daring. It will take a medical miracle...

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant." -- Napa Valley Register, November 21, 2004

"One shock leads to another." -- Carmel Valley News, November 12, 2004

From the Publisher

DNA, The Code of Life --and Death.

A Deadly Microbe... When a U.S. Customs inspector at the Canadian border succumbs to a fatal viral infection, a terrifying fear becomes reality. Someone has smuggled a devastating, genetically altered strain of smallpox virus into the country. But where is it? And just how deadly might it be?

A Master Terrorist... Sheik Abdul-Ghazi, oil billionaire turned terrorist, is the mastermind of a plot to spread a modern plague, killing millions. He and his jihadi zealots are holed up on a remote western ranch, preparing to unleash their nightmare weapon on American cities.

A Beautiful Woman... Jameela Noori, Abdul-Ghazi's Egyptian-born Arabian horse trainer, may be the consummate blend of loveliness and treachery. Or is she the weak link in a diabolical scheme?

The Greatest Mind Since Sherlock Holmes... As the new plague's first victims die, brilliant vaccine researcher, Dr. Peyton McKean, is enlisted by the Centers for Disease Control to track down the source of the virus and find a cure. From his lab to the highway, to a horseback chase in a hail of bullets, McKean brings to bear his keen intellect and the boldness of a born adventurer. But overcoming this threat will take more than daring. It will take a medical miracle...

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (May 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595316239
• ISBN-13: 978-0595316236
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,942,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Patrick Hopp writes mystery and science fiction novels and short stories. He was born in Seattle, Washington, and lived his earliest years in a housing project on the banks of the Duwamish River. Despite a tough start in life, good grades at the University of Washington and a perfect score on the Graduate Record Exam gained him entry to Cornell University Medical College. He helped found the multi-billion-dollar Seattle biotechnology company, Immunex Corporation.

His Dinosaur Wars science fiction books have been described as "Star Wars meets Jurassic Park." Filled with action and adventure, these stories follow Yellowstone Park naturalist Chase Armstrong and Montana rancher's daughter Kit Daniels in their struggles to survive an invasion of intelligent dinosaurs returning from space after 65 million years. The dinos have come to reclaim their home world -- our world! Enjoyable reading for all age groups.

His Peyton McKean mysteries follow a super-intelligent sleuth billed as "The Greatest Mind Since Sherlock Holmes." Like the author himself, Dr. McKean isn't a user of DNA tests as much as an inventor of DNA tests. He's the one called in when other efforts at a crime scene have failed. And he never ceases to amaze. His insights into crimes and criminal behavior stem from years of training in the biology of the most interesting of organisms, Homo sapiens.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Searingly informed,elegantly crafted,timely terrorist tale, September 18, 2004

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jihad Virus: A Novel (Paperback)

THE JIHAD VIRUS is one of those rare books that pack so much understandable information about matters scientific that the reader benefits form an enriched education while still being "entertained." Thomas P. Hopp reveals himself to be a fine writer, able to use his obvious depth of knowledge (he is schooled in immunology and virology and has made a significant impact on the fields of genetic engineering and vaccine production) and go beyond those elements of content to create a novel that is enriched by three-dimensional characters about whom we care very much. He wisely introduces his story with a quiet press conference about a problem at the Canadian/US border that his inquisitive reporter Fin Morton investigates and finds that the 'problem' is a genetically altered form of smallpox virus that has been engineered by Islamic terrorists to be a weapon of vast destruction not unlike the plague of the Middle Ages! Just how he proceeds with his investigative reporting, enlisting a genius immunologist, becoming infected with the deadly altered virus, and eventually uncovering the deadly plot, makes for page-turning reading. Yes, similar topics are rampant in both the movie theaters and on the shelves in bookstores right now: we live in the time of fear and anxiety about germ warfare among other forms of terrorism. But few writers have the ability to create so credible a scenario as Hopp. This is a fascinating book to read, a wakeup call to those who think 'it can't happen here', and a tribute to the talent of a fine scientist who has successfully crossed the bridge into quality literature! Recommended Reading!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ripping good yarn, September 18, 2004

By 

Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jihad Virus: A Novel (Paperback)

Since I don't read thrillers all that often, I can't say whether or not the events of September 11, 2001 fundamentally changed the genre. You would think that dark day would, though. I suspect the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon provided writers of medical, biological, and terrorist themed thrillers with a plethora of plot narratives to exploit. I do know writers in this genre are particularly sensitive to whatever threats the United States faces at the moment, as well they should be. A few years ago I read one of these books that dealt with the rise of a dangerous religious cult, right around the time the Heaven's Gate group went bonkers. September 11, 2001 sits in a league of its own, with the threat of nuclear, biological, and chemical disasters hovering over our heads even three years later. The opportunities for terrorists to strike at us are endless, and so are the possibilities for writing a book about Islamic fundamentalists threats. "The Jihad Virus" is such a novel, a book detailing the potential dangers of an Al-Qaeda type group attacking the United States with a modified form of everyone's favorite friend from yesteryear, smallpox.

The story of this potentially catastrophic disaster comes to us in the form of a narrative told by Phineus "Fin" Morton, a reporter whose beat covers the medical field. He's the guy who punches up the articles on the latest cancer treatments or the groundbreaking work in the field of virus research. Old Fin knows he's on to something huge when he attends what he thought would be a routine press conference in the Pacific Northwest. It's hardly routine. Morton is on hand to hear the details of a smallpox outbreak near the Canadian border. The authorities downplay the incident, of course, but then announce they're bringing in Stuart Holloman, head of a huge research laboratory named Immune Corporation, to help contain the problem. We learn this is the company that developed a cure for one of those nasty African viruses, and that they hope to study the potential lethality of this latest outbreak. Fin Morton immediately hops to it, securing an interview with Holloman at his office and thus positioning himself at ground zero if a big story should break. While Fin doesn't care a whit for Stuart Holloman, rightly ascertaining the guy's a greedy capitalist posing as a researcher so he can make big bucks in the research field, the reporter comes to a different conclusion when he meets Immune Corporation's star researcher Peyton McKean.

McKean, it turns out, was the guiding light behind the African virus cure. Holloman keeps the guy under wraps so the competition can't get their greedy mitts on him. The scientist, a deep thinking but easy going chap, takes a shine to Morton and quickly shows him everything that goes on in the laboratory. Before you can say "smallpox," McKean receives a call from his squirrelly cousin Mike about weird goings on at a ranch out in the hinterlands. According to the phone call, some Yemeni billionaire named Sheik Abdul-Ghazi is up to no good. Mike claims he saw some men taking a handcuffed woman into an outbuilding, a woman the press recently reported missing from a bar in Seattle. Peyton McKean and Fin Morton, their suspicions aroused, decide to drive out to Mike's place to investigate. Sure, it would be easier to tell everything they suspect to the FBI, but both men have good reason to suspect one of the agents might not be on the up and up, so they go it alone. Bad mistake. The Sheik and his minions are producing the engineered smallpox, and they promptly pull a nasty trick on Morton, McKean, and Mike after catching the trio snooping around the ranch. What follows is non-stop action as our heroes must stop the terrorists from destroying America, save their own lives, and produce a cure. Fin Morton must also decide what to do about his feelings for a beautiful Egyptian horse trainer named Jameela Noori.

There is no other way to do this than to come right out and say it: "The Virus Jihad" is a smashing great thriller, a book that moves faster than Fin Morton's stripped down Jaguar. Author Thomas Hopp is eminently qualified to write a biological thriller, considering his background as a biotechnologist and founder of a multi-billion dollar research company, but who would have thought a guy accustomed to test tubes and microscopes could pen such a nail biting thriller? You get car chases, a beautiful woman, shootouts, crooked cops, a deadly plague, and romance all in the space of 213 pages. You get fundamentalist terrorists encoding engineered viruses with scientific ciphers spelling out "DIE DIE DIE." And you get enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most jaded reader. Sure, a few of the events in the narrative are implausible, such as the fortuitous phone call from Mike, or the incredible luck involved in patching together a workable vaccine, but implausibility in this case doesn't interfere at all with the book's impact. "The Jihad Virus" is an immensely entertaining book.

The best aspect of Hopp's story, in my opinion, is how he doesn't assume his readers know a lot about virology, biology, and any other related -ologies. He explains in minute but easily understandable detail what McKean does in the laboratory, how scientists study viruses, and how a combination of egos and corporate red tape often ties up scientific discoveries. I'm familiar with the wacky world of academia, but the connect the dots approach to cutting edge biotechnology sure helped this science dummy feel better. If you love thrillers, I can't imagine you wouldn't heartily enjoy "The Jihad Virus."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tale of Biological Terror Unleashed in America, October 14, 2004

By 

L.A. Toland "Spotlight" (Lincoln, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jihad Virus: A Novel (Paperback)

The threat of an international bioterrorist attack against the U.S. becomes real in Thomas P. Hopp's novel, The Jihad Virus. A world-recognized vaccine expert, Dr. Hopp writes with authority about what might happen if Islamic terrorists unleashed a deadly, mutated strain of smallpox virus in America.

The Jihad Virus opens as a medical reporter, Fin Morton, attends a press conference at a Seattle public health hospital to learn that a customs inspector at the Canadian border has been admitted to the isolation ward-with smallpox.

One shock leads to another as Fin learns that the virus's DNA has been deliberately engineered to enhance its lethality. Fin follows the progress of a brilliant vaccine researcher, Dr. Peyton McKean, as the biotech sleuth attempts to discover the whereabouts of the terrorists, and develop a vaccine to protect Americans against the Jihad Virus's deadly effects. A trail of clues leads to a remote western ranch, where Islamic fundamentalists are preparing a massive assault against the population of the U.S., led by master terrorist, Sheik Abdul-Ghazi.

Millions may die unless McKean can find a cure. But first, McKean and Fin are challenged to save themselves, when they are captured by the Sheik's cohorts and deliberately infected with the very virus McKean is trying to cure! The Jihad Virus explores one of America's darkest fears, but offers hope of fighting back against the deadliest assault on humanity imaginable, biological warfare.