cover image Viral

Viral

James Lilliefors. Soho Crime, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-61695-068-2

Two brothers try to stop a grand-scale plot to remake the Third World, in Lilliefors’s fast-paced debut thriller. Ex-CIA agent Charles Mallory, now a private intelligence contractor, has been working on a project that inexplicably links the influx of billions of dollars into remote areas of Africa for supposedly humanitarian projects with a deadly virus that’s quietly wiping out entire populations of impoverished villages in a single day. When Charles sends his investigative journalist brother, Jon, overseas to witness and report the atrocities, he inadvertently places Jon at the center of a looming disaster that, if successfully unleashed, could irrevocably change the global balance of power. While the impressively intricate plot and nonstop action all but overwhelm the main characters, fans of intelligently written page-turners will be rewarded. Lilliefors is also the author of the mystery Bananaville and two historical studies, America’s Boardwalks and Highway 50. Agent: Laura Gross, Laura Gross Literary Agency. (Apr.)