Germ

Germ by Robert Liparulo is one of those books that makes me sorry I every read things like The Hot Zone. Good fiction is usually based partially in fact. And, the fact is, biological warfare and terrorism is a very real possibility in the near future.

The book opens like a Hollywood action film, with the flash of the sun on the windshield of an FBI agent's car as he flees two men on what should have been a quiet Saturday at home. His partner, Julia Matheson, is somewhere behind him, feeling helpless. Two chapters later, Julia has lost her partner and mentor and finds herself in a conspiracy so deep she doesn't even trust her own supervisor back in her Atlanta headquarters. Eventually, Julia teams up with a surgeon and his bear-like brother to form an unlikely trio, all of who are hunted by a ruthless hit-man as they search for answers.

Their search eventually leads them to a madman who has created the ultimate assassin, a designer Ebola virus that can pinpoint a single man, woman, or child anywhere on the planet. Or millions of men, women, and children. With the potential release of this monstrous weapon at the door, our trio of heroes soon realize that their own lives are all that stand between the planet and disaster of apocalyptic proportions.

Besides great characters and a spine-tingling plot, Liparulo does an excellent job of setting up the story. He weaves the back story, going back to the end of World War II, into the plot so well you hardly notice a beat.

I recommend Germ to any thriller lover. Just be careful. If you breathe, it will find you.