BONE DUST by Rick Maier
Rick Maier has written a thriller that is possibly too good for its own good. His novel BONE DUST deals with a virus that is transmitted from the Philippines to America, and causes an epidemic here. The scenes of the way the disease gets to this country and the effect it has on the total population are scary to the nth degree. Some people may not want to see just how vulnerable we all are to such an outbreak.
The focus of the story is Mike Spiker, a businessman living in Macon, Georgia. He is completely unprepared for the virus that comes into his life and infects him, his wife and children. And he is not alone. His friends and associates are all hit with the mysterious illness and soon the city of Macon is a city under siege.
The book looks at the reactions of the people of this community and the way they spring to the defense of the city and each other. Medical teams, politicians, and the armed forces are all called upon to fight the enemy, which in this case is an unknown disease. They strike out blindly at first trying any and everything to slow the infectious spread. But before they can become effective many lives are lost.
Maier is at his best in showing the horror of such a happening. He makes the illness itself very real, and makes it more terrible by showing the way some of the people react to the disease. There are those who fight and those who deny. There are also the very few who manage not to be infected.
The weakness with Maier's book is that he takes on too many issues. He has his hands full with the virus and its effects. Still he manages to bring in issues about the race relations in the city, about infidelity among his main characters, and a crime spree by some minor characters. This weakens the focus of the book and gets it off track.
Maier also has a hard time ending his story. He seems to want the reader to have a "full picture" of the life and times of his main character, Mike Spiker. These extra revelations are not necessary. Once the story of the virus has been told, the book should end.
Even with these minor flaws the book provides a nice read for those who like medical thrillers. Rick Maier has made an impressive debut with his first story and should be good for many more. He has the talent to be inventive as well as to create plots which grab the reader from the first pages.
If you can overcome the horror of reading about a deadly transmitted virus, you will be in for an exciting read. Just grit your teeth and plunge into it.
BONE DUST is published by First Books Library. It contains 227 ages and sells for $14.50.