The Global Pandemic and The Cure

The Cure - Glen Cooper

I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for classic post-apocalyptic fiction. You know, like The Stand, The Dog Stars, or Lucifer’s Hammer; and some older goodies like the The Andromeda Strain and Alas, Babylon. Glen Cooper’s The Cure is right up my alley, then, except perhaps the “classic” part.

It’s postapocalyptic fiction of the “global pandemic” subgenre (like The Stand), and I’ll grant that the premise of The Cure is inventive. Unlike the standard flu global pandemic, victims don’t die. Instead, they develop complete amnesia: no speech, no memory, no comprehension; just pure creatures of instinct (albeit trainable). The cause is an unholy marriage of a manufactured virus (intended to help cure dementia) and a wild virus that should never have come into contact with it. All because of a cascade of… well, stupidity.

As luck would have it, the two scientists who helped manufacture that virus are both among the one in five who seem immune. Problem 1: the hero (Jamie) is in Boston and the heroine (Mandy) is in Indianapolis. Problem 2: the hero’s teenage daughter (Emma) is, to put it nicely, tabula rasa. Problem 3: civilization has collapsed, and we all know what that means… the meek sure as heck will not inherit the earth.

What follows is stock postapocalyptic fiction; with the stereotypical brutal, violent fiefdoms and a harrowing journey across the country. That Jamie runs afoul of not one but two colonies of violent religious nutters may say something about the author, or perhaps something about the  state of this country. Cooper has an MD, which suggests that the science he uses to describe his weirdo virus is plausible; albeit at a level that will give some readers headaches. If that’s you, just go with the flow and willingly suspend your disbelief. It’s only a couple of chapters. 

What gave me a few headaches of my own wasn’t the medical science, though. No, that was the episodic nature of the action. It’s as if the book was written for serial television, neatly chopped into bite-sized chunks instead of forming an end-to-end narrative. 

In that, The Cure shares structure with many recent thrillers I’ve encountered, making this reader (at least) suspect that the author was torn between writing a scripted series or a novel. Each episode – or story arc, if more than a couple of chapters – ends with a thrilling escape or the death of yet another semi-major character; all compressed into what seems to be an improbably short period. Truth be told, though, it was hard to get a handle on the duration covered by the action.  

Cooper deserves kudos for an inventive premise. On that count alone I’d be inclined to award five stars. However, his inventiveness failed when it came to the “balance of good and evil,” as so well depicted in The Stand. Add to that a milquetoast main character and the lack of consistent timing, and I have to knock off some stars, leaving The Cure with three and a half.

copyright © 2026 scmrak

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in return for my honest review.

  

Dez Goes Underground for Storm Warning

Storm Warning - James Byrne

Meet Desmond Aloysius Limerick, Dez to his friends (he insists on it). Dez could be charitably described as a tank: 5-foot-8 with a 50-inch chest… and all muscle. Brawn, but with a healthy helping of brain: he’s a Gatekeeper: he can open any door and keep it open as long as necessary, allowing in those who belong and keeping out those who don’t. Between gate jobs he’s a professional musician (bass guitar and piano) and a has recently spent time as a sous chef. Oh, and despite his unusual physique, he’s apparently irresistible to beautiful women.

It's for his skill with doors that the FBI reached out to Dez this time. Seems that a high-end research station deep (underground) in the Canadian Maritimes has gone radio silent, along with the staff of an underground mine and the village of Fuchstown ion the surface. The Feebs are mounting a hostage rescue team, and Dez asked to go along to open doors. He’s happy to join them, seeing that his occasional squeeze Petra Alexandris is one of the people with whom communication has ceased.

Just getting to Fuchstown proves to be difficult, partially because of violent winter storms and partially because of the mercenaries employed by the evil co-presidents of a mining equipment company; hell-bent on getting into the facility before anyone else… for some unknown reason.

The storms prevent the HRT from reaching the site, but Dez and a small group of non-FBI types make it to a deserted Fuchstown to find the sole elevator to the underground complex disabled. Well, disabled for anyone who’s not a Gatekeeper. As Dez repairs the machinery, a gaggle of mercs show up slinging lead with a .50-caliber machine gun. Dez’s party heads underground, where they find a standoff between the surviving townspeople and an unknown number of Russians; suspiciously militaristic for “mining engineers.” Oh, yeah, and there’s also an assassin roaming the tunnels and chambers. Well, at least Dez and Petra are reunited…

Given a surprising number of moles -- they ARE underground after all – and plenty of suspicion, misdirection, lies, and backstabbing (some literal), the action underground will prove to be non-stop. Expect plenty of action sprinkled liberally with surprises and not a little of Dez’s wry humor. Don’t worry about the psychopaths directing all the mayhem, though: they’ll get their just deserts. 

Storm Warning is the fourth Dez Limerick book from the pen of James Byrne (The Gatekeeper, Deadlock, Chain Reaction). Limerick has the skills of your typical Jason Stratham hero while combining many of the skills of a Mission Impossible team; not to mention a wicked sense of humor – definitely a modern-day renaissance man. While the breadth of his skillsets isn’t particularly believable (and Byrne needs more help with technical stuff than he’s getting), a trip into the willing suspension of disbelief with Mr. Limerick is always highly enjoyable.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

copyright © 2025 scmrak

In Which Orphan X Draws Closer to Humanity

Antihero - Greg Hurwitz

If you’ve been reading the Orphan X series since the eponymous introductory book in 2016 (as have I), you have noticed by now that the famously stoic, OCD-riddled Evan Smoak has been doing quite a lot of “personal growth” through the first ten installments. Number eleven, Antihero, takes The Nowhere Man to places in his psyche he’s never visited before… and it’s pretty fascinating.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of mayhem — as you might expect — but his latest “mission” has placed some restrictions on him, among which is a version of the biblical fifth commandment: don’t kill anyone on my behalf. Trust me; if you were in X’s Original S.W.A.T.s and knew what had happened, you’d be hard-pressed to obey that command.

The Werewolves of Seattle...

American Werewolves - Emily Jane

One of my household’s favorite television programs of this century has been the six seasons of NBC’s “Grimm.” I think we’re now on our fourth – or maybe it’s our fifth – cycle through the entire series. Not familiar with the show’s premise? Simple: there are people who look just like everyone else who can change into humanized versions of animals: sheep, wolves, foxes, pigs, beavers, rats, even bees. These people can be either benign or evil; although most of the predator types are evil.

Parker's Newest Protagonists: Keeping Secrets, Finding Killers

 Wild Instinct - T. Jefferson Parker

I’ve been reading T. Jefferson Parker since the days of Little Saigon and Laguna Heat, so yes – four decades now. And although I’ve never been in California’s Orange County, I sometimes feel as if I know its landscape and people from Jeff’s descriptions – the wild Pacific coast, the tumultuous border with Mexico, the deeply-ingrained Latinx culture. His latest, Wild Instinct, introduced me to a new aspect of the region; its Native heritage. For that, I thank him.

Wild Instinct, like about half Parker’s works, is a police procedural: when the tale opens, OCSD detective Lew Gale (né Luis Gallego) is on the hunt for a mountain lion presumed to have killed local real-estate developer Bennet Tarlow III. But when the ME finds a bullet in Tarlow’s brain, the hunt turns into a murder investigation. Paired with newly-minted homicide detective Daniela Mendez, Gale burrows into the workings of OC’s richest family, three generations of Tarlows, and Bennet III’s biggest project: a five square-mile city he would call Wildcoast. The usual suspects abound: local NIMBYs, the small but vocal indigenous communities, and all those politicians with their hands outstretched.