Dark Harvest

Dark Harvest by Will Jordan

https://medium.com/@peterseanEsq/book-review-dark-harvest-is-a-first-rate-thriller-830db1d98c80

This is a page-turner, or, whatever the equivalent is when you listen to it as an audiobook.

Will Jordan offers the Youtube video channel known as the Critical Drinker. He opines about science fiction, fantasy, and gaming offerings. I have found his opinions to be invariably insightful and informative. His usual complaint about modern stories is that they either don't make the character engaging or they don't present the story conflict in a way that captures the readers' attention.

This book shows he can practice what he preaches.

The story opens with a girl returning a crystal to a cave. It then shifts to Cameron Becker, a former American Special Ops soldier turned private contractor. Becker's team is ambushed, the person it was hired to protect is kidnapped. Becker then pursues the kidnappers across the desert where he wanders into a town of zombies. At the same time, Lori Dalton, a WHO communicable disease medical specialist, is investigating the town. The signs are that the zombie outbreak is a virus tailored by terrorists.

From that point, Becker and Dalton are chasing after the virus in an effort to prevent it from being unleashed on the world. The action is high-level, with enough breaks for the reader to get to know Becker and Dalton. We get involved with Becker and Dalton and care about them as they run through the maze to figure out what the virus is, how to stop it, and where to find the antidote. The character moments do not get in the way of the action, which merits this book being a worthy entry in the “thriller” category. My attention to the story did not flag.