Richard+Preston

By: Richard Preston
Summary: The Cobra Event is a science fiction medical mystery about a deadly disease being spread throughout New York City. It started out as just two deaths of a very strange manner. Next a few more became infected and died. This book goes through the investigation of finding out about the deadly brain pox disease, trying to prevent it, and in the end tracking down the maker of the virus and bringing him to justice. The Cobra Event is told from the perspective of Dr. Alice Austen, a CDC worker. When first assigned to the case, she had no idea what she was looking at or getting herself into. Through good old-fashion detective work and later help from the FBI, Dr. Austen was able to uncover what was causing the sporadic and bizarre deaths of the people. This book goes into exceptional detail from the description of the symptoms of the victims to the autopsies that were preformed and the lab procedures that were executed.

Excerpts: “Then her teeth sank into her lower lip, cutting through the lip, and a run of blood went down her chin and neck. She bit her lip again, hard, with ferocity, and she made a groaning animal sound. This time the lip detached and hung down. She pulled her lip in, sucked into her mouth and swallowed.” These lines are from the beginning of the book when the first case is discovered in a seventeen year old. The symptoms started out as just a cold and within hours develop into the full on virus as it replicates in the midbrain. The worst symptom was the aggressiveness and self destruction in the form of chewing. Some of the victims, like this one (Kate Moran) chewed their tongues, lips, mouth. Others chewed off their fingers and/or toes. “The evidence is mainly biological. All terrorist weapons contain signatures- forensic signatures- that lead you back to the perpetrator. We can analyze the infective agent, and it will lead us back to its creator.” This was said during the SIOC meeting with all the important top officials in the US. Will Hopkins was explaining the way the Reachdeep team is used to explore the forensic aspect of crimes. This is how the Cobra virus was analyzed and Tom Cope, the man behind the virus, was found. “And the world is overdue for another biological event. If it doesn’t happen soon, how many species will disappear, how many species will vanish forever? If the public health doctors keep up their work, they will practically destroy the world. Hence the need for a new disease.” This section of text is Tom Cope’s reasoning behind the need to create the Cobra virus. He felt that humans were slowly destroying the rainforests and everything else that the Earth gave us. He looked back at history as an example. He reasoned that in the middle ages when the black plague broke out, it caused many deaths and cleansed the human population. Also, he figured that it ended the middle ages and brought a great economic boom to the people.

Reflection: I thoroughly enjoyed the Cobra Event by Richard Preston. I have read the Hot Zone, also by Preston, and enjoyed that one too. His writing is so detailed and enticing that I feel as if I am right there as a character in the story. It was hard to put down and stop reading till the end and once at the end I wanted more. I look forward to reading more books by Richard Preston. Although, this was a long book, I never forgot what was happening. The events moved along in a flow and didn’t seem to drag on or dwell on any one specific moment. The way The Cobra Event was written made the book more real-life like and had me questioning the air I am breathing in, the government that handles these types of outbreaks, and biological weapons that are out there or even in use right now. Overall, this was a great read, especially during the time of the H1N1 virus popularity.