Preston, Douglas: The Codex

Elsewhere in this blog is a review of one of this author's collaborations with Lincoln Child (as well as a review of one of the
latter's books) but this is the first solo effort I have read. There is no great difference in the style of this book from that of the collaborations with both requiring some suspension of disbelief as, come to think of it, do many adventure cum thriller
novels. A simple story - father calls his sons to the family mansion but he is gone as are the multi-million dollar works of
art and relics which he has taken back to the Mayan ruins of Honduras to be buried with him as he has but a few months to
live. The three react differently with the lead brother initially deciding to forget about it. He is persuaded otherwise by a
beautiful blonde ethnopharmacologist who talks him into going to find 'The Codex' which is a herbal dictionary of the many
plants used by the Mayans. One brother has teamed up with the man who had been his father's partner when he first went
to Honduras though they fell out there: this is the villain of the piece. Although going their own way, the three brothers do
eventually link up with a fourth brother who is part native Honduran. One has to accept the varied skills of the girl and the
main brother and the out and out villainy of the bad guy as well as the coincidences that bring them all together and lead to
the denouement. Well-written and equal to the collaborative works of which more as time goes by.

Maberry, Jonathan: Patient Zero

I read this after a teasing review in either 'The Times' or 'Time Out'. The hero seems to be too good to be true with lightning
reflexes and a lack of conscience when it comes to the bad guys. The premise of the book is the development of a drug which turns people into zombies, as does their then biting others, with a double villain. The money provider for the work
done in developing the drug is the head of a world-wide drug corporation whose intent is to capture the world drug market
but he is working with the talented wife of a terrorist Muslim whose aim is the destruction of the USA and the entire Western
world. Thus, there are two threads - one the efforts to contain and wipe out the zombies on US soil and the other the way in which the jihadist outwits the man with the money. The book moves along at a fast pace and there are no untoward leaps of faith required to follow the story as long as the basic idea is accepted. A sequel appears to be set up at the end but I will take my time getting to it.