What do you think?
Rate this book
Dr. Laura Powell #3
The Mind Worms
Over the years, Dr. Laura Powell has seen things in her morgue that no one has ever seen before—a corpse filled with an unknown fungus, a body completely petrified mere moments after death—but she's never had a dead body wake up on the autopsy table.
Until now.
Environmental scientist Jordan Mintz was pronounced dead after suffering a mysterious illness. Now, suddenly, he finds himself alive once more, but changed. Plagued by visions of worms and an unforgiving, insatiable hunger, he wonders if he's the same man he was before.
Or if he's even human anymore.
After a brutal act of violence rocks the small Hudson Valley city of Sakima, Jordan goes missing. With the help of forensic tech Park Dae-jung and chief of police Elena Morales, Laura searches for answers. How is Jordan alive again? What is the unknown illness that supposedly killed him in the first place? And most importantly, where did Jordan go?
Because time is running out. There are other people looking for Jordan, too. People who would have preferred he stay dead. But that's not the worst of it. Something is growing inside of Jordan, something inhuman, dangerous, and deadly. When it emerges, no one anywhere will be safe.
With The Mind Worms, multiple award-nominated bestselling author Nicholas Kaufmann delivers yet another riveting, fast-paced thriller in the Dr. Laura Powell series.
Until now.
Environmental scientist Jordan Mintz was pronounced dead after suffering a mysterious illness. Now, suddenly, he finds himself alive once more, but changed. Plagued by visions of worms and an unforgiving, insatiable hunger, he wonders if he's the same man he was before.
Or if he's even human anymore.
After a brutal act of violence rocks the small Hudson Valley city of Sakima, Jordan goes missing. With the help of forensic tech Park Dae-jung and chief of police Elena Morales, Laura searches for answers. How is Jordan alive again? What is the unknown illness that supposedly killed him in the first place? And most importantly, where did Jordan go?
Because time is running out. There are other people looking for Jordan, too. People who would have preferred he stay dead. But that's not the worst of it. Something is growing inside of Jordan, something inhuman, dangerous, and deadly. When it emerges, no one anywhere will be safe.
With The Mind Worms, multiple award-nominated bestselling author Nicholas Kaufmann delivers yet another riveting, fast-paced thriller in the Dr. Laura Powell series.
- GenresHorror
296 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 12, 2024
3 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Kaufmann
37 books217 followersNicholas Kaufmann is the Bram Stoker Award-, Thriller Award-, Shirley Jackson Award-, and Dragon Award-nominated author of numerous books and stories. In addition to his own work, he has written for such properties as Zombies vs. Robots, The Rocketeer, and Warhammer. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 8, 2024
The Mind Worms is an excellent addition to the Dr. Laura Powell series as the medical examiner deals with her latest would-be autopsy waking up!
Like the other books in the series there are characters to get invested in, some gnarly medical stuff, mystery, action, tension and emotion plus it’s all based on scientific fact so you might learn something too! It’s a really well-paced and thoroughly enjoyable read.
Thank you to the author for sending me a copy.
Like the other books in the series there are characters to get invested in, some gnarly medical stuff, mystery, action, tension and emotion plus it’s all based on scientific fact so you might learn something too! It’s a really well-paced and thoroughly enjoyable read.
Thank you to the author for sending me a copy.
March 21, 2024
Yet another great entry in the Dr. Laura Powell series, and possibly the entry where the series has found its stride. In the first two installments built a strong cast of characters and fleshed out world allowing The Mind Worms hits the ground running, and keep running all the way to it's conclusion.
Looking forward to seeing what comes next in the series and hope that we'll be treated to many more installments!
Looking forward to seeing what comes next in the series and hope that we'll be treated to many more installments!
May 6, 2024
This book was great! My heart pounded, flesh crawled, and cringed at the descriptions used throughout. Hope there are more in the series to look forward to.
September 11, 2025
I enjoyed Nicholas Kaufmann’s science fiction/horror novel, “The Mind Worms,” which features series character, Dr. Laura Powell, who shockingly has a dead body wake up on her autopsy table. As she and her coworkers on the police force investigate this bizarre incident, she discovers that the person, Jordan, was declared dead after contracting a weird illness when he was working on a scientific project involving permafrost core samples found in Alaska. Something ancient from long, long ago was in those samples, that causes worms to come out of Jordan’s abdomen.
Now, in a race against time with Jordan’s life in jeopardy, Laura and her colleagues must find the answers to what’s growing inside Jordan before it’s all too late. I found this book an entertaining, engaging, and compelling read (with its not that impossible plot according to Nicholas in his afterword at the end of the novel), with its diverse cast of believable characters. Characters that I rooted for and cared about.
There were two supporting characters I really liked in this book. One died (I won’t reveal the characters’ names because I don’t want to spoil it for people) and that scene where she died was very sad and difficult to read because I liked her and didn’t want her to die. The same could be said about the second supporting character who we think was left for dead after being shot, but fortunately, he survives. I like the diversity in the cast of characters: Jordan and his fiancé, Nadeem, are gay characters, and Laura and her boyfriend, Booker, are in an interracial relationship. The diversity is one of the strengths of this novel.
Now, in a race against time with Jordan’s life in jeopardy, Laura and her colleagues must find the answers to what’s growing inside Jordan before it’s all too late. I found this book an entertaining, engaging, and compelling read (with its not that impossible plot according to Nicholas in his afterword at the end of the novel), with its diverse cast of believable characters. Characters that I rooted for and cared about.
There were two supporting characters I really liked in this book. One died (I won’t reveal the characters’ names because I don’t want to spoil it for people) and that scene where she died was very sad and difficult to read because I liked her and didn’t want her to die. The same could be said about the second supporting character who we think was left for dead after being shot, but fortunately, he survives. I like the diversity in the cast of characters: Jordan and his fiancé, Nadeem, are gay characters, and Laura and her boyfriend, Booker, are in an interracial relationship. The diversity is one of the strengths of this novel.
April 6, 2024
Another great adventure with Dr. Powell
I absolutely love the amount of research that goes into these stories. There’s enough science woven in to make the fiction totally believable. And that makes these stories that much creepier! I also love the way they are so action-packed.
This one in particular was far creepier for me because larvae in horror is never a good thing. There’s something completely visceral about larvae that makes me cringe at the very word. The author does a fantastic job with imagery and I was truly horrified. I don’t know if more books are planned for this series, but I will definitely pick them up in a heartbeat if there are.
I absolutely love the amount of research that goes into these stories. There’s enough science woven in to make the fiction totally believable. And that makes these stories that much creepier! I also love the way they are so action-packed.
This one in particular was far creepier for me because larvae in horror is never a good thing. There’s something completely visceral about larvae that makes me cringe at the very word. The author does a fantastic job with imagery and I was truly horrified. I don’t know if more books are planned for this series, but I will definitely pick them up in a heartbeat if there are.
April 16, 2024
The third Laura Powell novel is, like the others in the series, fast-paced, gripping, and moving. The relationships between characters seem authentic and natural, and everyone's reactions to the events of the plot--no matter how outrageous or gruesome--seem equally authentic. I haven't read a book this quickly in quite some time, but the narrative seems structured to propel the reader swiftly though each chapter. Events progress rapidly, but the book doesn't feel rushed.
August 5, 2024
Nicholas Kaufmann's best Laura Powell book yet! Deeply unsettling, with relatable characters, and the fanciful drawn from the actual, this is eco-horror as it is meant to be.
May 2, 2024
This book contains worms deposited by prehistoric wasps into human beings, and the horrible things that happen when the worms grow up. All of it is backed by extrapolations from true wasp behavior so I think you all should know that there are Things Out There you haven’t noticed yet. The fact that our own greed is responsible for releasing this prehistoric horror into our contemporary timeline is only aggravated by the potential release of so much more from the melting permafrost. Kaufmann’s “The Mind Worms” is frightening not only for the terror the wasps bring but also for a look at what our actions may unleash. The book is fast, intelligent, persuasive, and deeply unsettling. There were some people in that book I really liked and I’m sorry they didn’t make it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews