Patrick Lynch (1)

Omega is a medical thriller and like most medical thrillers there is a lot of medical jargon. It uses words like sternocleidomastoid and cricothyroidotomy and I have no idea what they mean. But that doesn’t matter. You can always understand the context well enough. Some of the terms and procedures are even explained for you right in the text which I found rather interesting. Marcus Ford turns into a bit of a tragic figure. When things start to go wrong for him they go wrong in a big way. show more You feel bad for him as he gets blamed for things that are beyond his control and his whole world seems to be falling apart and you want things to turn around for him but you know that they won’t and you wait with anticipation for the next horrible tragedy. You can understand his disbelief, outrage and helplessness as people die and no one will listen to him or let him help and the answers stay just out of his reach. Lynch does a great job of making the reader feel the desperation, fear, and urgency as things start to spiral out of control. It all starts out so small and builds until you can imagine it having disastrous and far reaching consequences. The story pulls you along as you follow Marcus as time and all his options run out. He doesn’t know who to trust, where to turn, what to do, or even what is right. It is suspenseful, engrossing, fast paced and an entertaining read. show less

Fair warning... there are several scenes in this book that are absolutely not for the weak of heart when it comes to depictions (or descriptions) of medical issues, in this case, hemorrhagic fever. (the rating of this book is no reflection of that - it's just a warning to the squeamish)

I read Hot Zone years ago (the book the movie Outbreak was based off) and came across Carriers in a Little Free Library. I was intrigued enough to grab it. In some ways it reminded me of Hot Zone, but plenty show more different enough that neither book feels derivative off the other.

You have a army/medical team trying to figure out where this outbreak is coming from, but in the end the source surprised me (the title is Carriers for a reason) Overall it was a decently-paced medical mystery even if I did feel the ending was a bit out there. show less

Ebola like illness and gory descriptions of it make my day! The book started off with a bang, but then bogged down in the middle with all the seemingly endless military action in the jungle. Eventually the plot twist came about, but then the book ended quite suddenly and it was pretty disappointing. Good idea in theory, but too much military stuff and not enough gore and biohazard.

Patrick Lynch has written a fast paced, action packed, terrifying, page turner of a novel with his vision of an infectious ebola type virus gone airborne. This book is definitely one of the scariest books I've ever read! What makes this novel so frightening is the very real possibility that something like this could really happen. Lynch grabs you by the hand and not only shows you the way, but shoves you in the path of death. A must read for any one who has ever dared to be scared.