Spill

by Les Standiford

Stephen King called SPILL "the debut thriller of the year." Yellowstone National Park is straining under a drought and the effects of the worst heat wave in history and all park ranger Jack Fairchild wants to do is make it through the weekend without seeing his beloved wilderness go up in flames. Then, as the park swells to the max with Frontier Days visitors, a tanker carrying a lethal bio-chemical plague virus overturns in a creek, and all hell literally breaks loose. A genetically engineered form of hemorrhagic fever is soon sweeping through the park, turning human victims into exploding bags of blood and dropping them in their tracks. Were anyone infected to escape park boundaries, the spread of the disease could put the entire country at risk. Enter the operatives of PetroDyne, manufacturers of the virus, along with those in government responsible for the clandestine manufacture of biochemical plague agents, intent on making sure that no one who has been exposed will escape...or, for that matter, survive. Jack Fairchild and a small party of those spared the effects of the virus flee into the most remote sections of the park, pursued by assassins who will stop at nothing to be sure that the spread of the plague is halted, and that, just as importantly, the machinations of PetroDyne and the U.S. government will forever remain top-secret. The deadly cat and mouse game that ensues between survivalist Fairchild and his charges up against heavily armed and equipped killers plowing across the breathtaking landscape makes for timely and utterly compelling reading. Carl Hiaasen called SPILL "All you could want in a thriller," and Elmore Leonard said, "I loved the plot, the people, the prose. SPILL has everything." NPR critic Alan Cheuse praised the book, calling it "action on a wide, wide scale," and James W. Hall said "SPILL is a high tension thriller that moves like fire through dry underbrush...all the more shocking because it is utterly convincing." Released as a feature film, VIRUS, starring ex-footballer Brian Bosworth and produced by Ashok Amritraj (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE.) SPILL was reprinted in British, Dutch, German, and Japanese editions. It is the author's first book, the precursor to the critically acclaimed John Deal series, and a number of works of narrative non-fiction, including LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE and WATER TO THE ANGELS. SPILL received the Barnes&Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and was widely praised by critics including Tony Hillerman who called it "Grisly, gory, and gripping. Standiford can WRITE." Available as an e-book for the first time.

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Les Standiford is a historian and author and has since 1985 been the Director of the Florida International University Creative Writing Program. Standiford has been awarded the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and belongs to the Associated Writing Programs, Mystery Writers of America, and the Writers Guild.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read and enjoyable, but rather forgettable. I feel like the author dabbled with the idea of a zombie-style outbreak, but gave it up, leaving some incidents questionable. The plotline of a chemical spill and resulting cover-up is believable. The characters are complete tropes: sad sack protagonist whose wife just left him, a good woman just looking for someone to love her and the land, a native trying to do right by his people and his land, a drunk/high/horny truck driver, government officials kept in the dark, a rogue government official, and a vet (wait, what?).

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently picked up a used copy of this thriller by Les Standiford ( published in 1991) mainly because of the blurb on the cover: "The debut thriller of the year"--Stephen King. It was an enjoyable thriller, a solid 3 stars, but NOT Stephen King. But, on the other hand, it was only 337 pages long. A toxic spill occurs in Yellowstone National Park which causes plague. The government and a big corporation move to contain and cover-up the disaster--no surprise there. Part of the plan is to track down and terminate anyone who was affected so we have our hero Park Ranger Jack Fairchild leading a group of survivors to try to escape with their lives.
I was expecting more of a "zombie apocalypse" type of story but this was more of a survival in the wilderness story. The corporation sends a maniac mercenary to kill Jack & company and it turns out this guy is an inhuman killing machine. The Predator couldn't stop this guy....sort of a cartoony villain, but, hey, there just may be people like that out there in the world doing truly horrendous things...
Interestingly enough, Standiford also writes non-fiction and I see I have another book by the author on the TBR stack of books and it's non-fiction...

[David McGill]

Spill is a biological disaster story from the early 1990s, just before the author wrote his atmospheric Miama noir series about construction worker Johnny Deal. Spill however was made into the film Virus and has pace aplenty with ruthless government coverup and the protagonist in danger as he exposes the bad Montana spill. I wish Deal and the sunnier Miami vibes got to film or better a TV series, but Spill is worth checking out.

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

All too real in our present world.

[Mario Smet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een goed boek. Maar mocht wat meer spanning in zitten.

[Chris Maguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Nothing super spectacular about it. Realistic characters for the most part, plausible plot. I was a little disappointed that what I thought was a zombie outbreak (when Fairchild finds the family of campers and when what's-her-face's horse goes psychotic) never materialized.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh please...a vet? a mountain lion that lives in a large cave? This book is not a story but a fairy tale. Two stars is generous!