Customer Reviews

The Medusa Strain

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Chilling, plausible, thought provoking, all too real, yet fiction. This is one book you will not stop talking or thinking about.

Could the person sitting next to you on a plane have a cold or could it be something more deadly...
Terrorists develop a new airborne strain of anthrax. Six of the terrorists are unknowingly infected with the anthrax and placed on separate flights to the US. The symptoms mimic the common cold. The terrorists' coughs and sneezes spread the virus to those trapped in the plane with him.
Dr. Gil Martin is a down-on-his-luck ER physician. He's divorced and drowning his problems in a bottle. His ex-wife, Tara, works with the CDC and still owns his heart. A patient comes into the ER with what appears to be an URI, but he turns out to be infected with a new strain of anthrax. Gil sobers up and gets his head on straight. He turns to Tara for assistance. The search for the source of the anthrax and the effort to inform the public leads to danger for Gil. He and Tara begin to work out their differences, but is it too late?
Dr. Chris Holmes brings his expertise to his first novel Mosquito Tapes. Holmes deftly creates a convincing plot. His use of medical terminology lends to the believability of this work of art. Holmes' characters are interesting. The combination of mystery and romance are perfect. The romance adds depth to the lead characters, Gil and Tara. However, Holmes never lets romance over power the mystery. Holmes is a talented author, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

This is a well written thriller that is only too relevant in today's world. It is as much of a what and how are they going to do it as opposed to a who did it. A lot of fascinating biology,written so that it is easily accessible to the non-expert is included.

Picked up this book because the author was coming to book store. So glad I was willing to try a new author. This book was filled with so many similar problems we are facing. When SARS arrived and I'm seeing people with face masks on their nose and mouth sitting next to me at the Doctor's office I was living the book. It had the Doctor hero and all the agency's CDC, FEMA and such that we are listening to right now. This story didn't need SARS or the WAR to make it interesting. It's a good story and very suspenceful.

Critchton move over for competition! Congratulations Mr. Holmes on an excellent and well written mystery! It held my attention from the thought provolking title to the back cover.

Novels, to me, are often a dramatization of real life, a condensed microcosm of the real world. Here, Chris Holmes writes of terrorists in Iraq, after the first Gulf war, developing a communicable form of anthrax via genetic engineering, and setting it lose on America. Also, Iraq is depicted as having an active germ warfare program after the first Gulf war. Does Holmes have this wrong, and does he contribute to the war hysteria that caused many of us to follow our errant leaders into an unnecessary war? Yes, I believe, as weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq afer the second Gulf war... and even if they were found Iraq nevertheless never threatened the United States, prior to the second war, anyway, except in defense of their country. Yes, Saddam is a bad guy, but bombing their country and killing thousands of civilians has created vast hatred towards the United States and bred countless new terrorists. So, I consider this novel to be wrong on a most basic level. As for the literary value of the book, it was interesting, though not a page turner, was well written, good plot, with excellent character development. Just keep the above reservations in mind as you read it.