Review: The Enigma Strain (Harvey Bennett #1) by Nick Thacker

Title: The Enigma Strain
Author: Nick Thacker
Published: Nov. 27, 2014
Publisher: Turtleshell Press
Pages: 296
Genre: Adventure/science fiction
Review: ebook provided by StoryCartel

When a bomb goes off at Yellowstone National Park, the reclusive park ranger Harvey "Ben" Bennett is startled to realize that the blast wasn't the only threat: the bomb released some sort of virus into the air, and it's beginning to infect and kill more and more people.

It's a race against time as Ben teams up with a woman from the CDC to figure who's behind the attacks, and how to stop the next one.

I received this book via StoryCartel to give an honest review.

When I read the blurb to this I was all for the book. I figured it was going to a whole lot of action and devastation being as this is some type of virus that can kill people. For me it really lacked on it. We start off with an expedition that happened oh so many years ago and no one knew what happened. We learn that what the expedition uncovered is something that caused them their lives. Fast forward a bit to the present a new team of people want to find this expedition and caves around Yellowstone. What they find cost them their lives as well but not from what you think. 

After that we are now where we meet Ben who works as a park ranger, as he is going about his normal and daily routine something unexpected happens at Yellowstone. This leads to the Earth opening, a death cloud above and now with the help of a CDC worker Julie a race against time to figure out who has caused this and can it be stopped.

When Ben makes it is mission to figure out what is going on with the help of Julie there is a whole lot of putting the puzzle together which I thought was good. You don't want to know what the bad guys main objective is right away. 

Though for me there didn't seem to be too much focus on the deaths and how the world was reacting.  You would think that we would get maybe a few pages to even possibly a chapter on how the world was reacting to the news of this happening. We just seemed to have gotten a touch and it wasn't enough.

I did like how Ben and Julie never gave up on trying to put the puzzle together even though at times it seemed information was not getting to them because of the bad guys. It is scary to know that people knew about this and they are higher up in the so call food chain of things. 

Now the relationship between the two characters didn't feel real, I mean you got two different people who just met because of a disaster only to have them pretty much making out? Not only that Julie at first came across as okay but then she just seem to become very pushy when it came to the life of Ben. I mean the poor man didn't want to divulge his personal life and she doesn't know how to give up asking about it. 

Overall a good story that has you wanting to find out if the virus can be stopped in time, or will it be too late for everyone. The author did a decent job with this story.

Nick Thacker is an author of fiction (thrillers, action/adventure, etc.) novels and nonfiction books. His first novel, The Golden Crystal, was published in 2013 by Turtleshell Press, and his second, The Depths, was published in 2014.
He lives in a cabin on a mountain in Colorado with his wife, two dogs, and a tortoise, and enjoys skiing, brewing beer, golfing, and of course writing. Read more about Nick (and learn about the writing and self-publishing world) at his blog, www.livehacked.com.