Book Review: The Cobra Event (author Richard Preston)

Seventeen-year-old Kate Moran wakes one morning to the beginnings of a head cold but shrugs it off and goes to school anyway. By her midmorning art class, Kate’s runny nose gives way to violent seizures and a hideous scene of self-cannibalization. She dies soon after. When a homeless man meets a similarly gruesome — and mystifying — fate, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta sends pathologist Alice Austen to investigate. What she uncovers is the work of a killer, a man who calls himself Archimedes and is intent on spreading his deadly Cobra virus throughout New York City. A silent crisis erupts, with Austen and a secret FBI forensic team rushing to expose the terrorist.

This book is very well researched and I often found myself wondering what was fact and what was fiction, whether it was the description of the nature of viruses, the extent of how they can be manipulated and forced to mutate, or if there are nations that have gone this far.

Scary for sure and made me think about the world a little bit differently, for better or worse. The book did read a little slow but really came to life in the three sections named Invisible History.      3 out of 5 stars.

Marleah Augustine is the Adult Department Librarian at the Hays Public Library

You can see more of her blog here    http://hayspubliclibrary.wordpress.com