Frank is a reclusive germophobe with OCD, living in terror of germs and disease. If he had his way, he'd live all year round at his summer cabin on a small private island near the Canadian-US border where he can stay away from people and live in peace. I liked having a hero who had these issues dominating his life and he was a sympathetic character. His ex-wife Kate, who now works at the CDC, divorced him when he got too hard to handle and his daughter Ella, an aspiring police officer in New York has grown up embarrassed by her father on many occasions. Frank is in therapy trying to get better so he can win Kate back when his world is turned upside down by her worried phone call, telling him that a deadly pandemic has hit the US and it is fatal to anyone who catches it.
Frank's therapist Sal is the closest thing to a friend that he has, and is certain that he can help Frank overcome his compulsions but news of the pandemic from Kate has Sal almost as worried as Frank. He helps Frank get supplies to the island and finds himself asking if he can bring his own wife and kids to the island to ride out the storm and see what happens. Frank agrees but is more concerned about persuading Ella to leave New York and stay with him, after all of his previous prophecies of doom failed to happen. Ella doesn't believe him and by the time she realises that he and Kate were right, the campus is being locked down because the pandemic has reached the area. Frank now has to face the very real prospect of having to go to the city and overcome his fears to save his daughter.
I have a slight issue with the work of this author. I find that his ideas are excellent and he can write interesting and different characters. For example, following someone with OCD during a deadly pandemic is fascinating. I enjoyed seeing Frank's struggles with his condition battling with his desire to save his daughter. I also liked Sal, the therapist and voice of reason who is trying to help Frank get better. Sal is a good, normal guy and I liked the way he switched his thinking from panic at the potential pandemic to the rational thought that it was going to be ok. It made him a realistic character and I liked him. Frank's ex wife Kate was also a good character, dealing with her boyfriend becoming infected through his work and torn between doing her duty or going to be with her daughter.
But the big problem I find with the author is that he always has to put in main or supporting characters that I just don't like, and every time it happens, it tends to put me off reading any further than the first book in a series. In this case, I hated Sal's wife Gloria. I get that she thinks Sal spends too much time with Frank (though he does get paid for it) and that she thinks Frank is weird and paranoid. To blame Frank for Sal not seeing enough of his kids is dumb when he only visits Frank for an hour or two each week! She bitches about Frank non stop even though he has invited them to stay with him during the crisis. She moans about Frank putting them into quarantine for two days to ensure they aren't infected. Then she says Frank is making up the pandemic story and demands to speak to Kate at the CDC for confirmation. Instead of spinelessly agreeing as he did, Frank should have said no and told her to leave if she wasn't happy being there. What a whiny bitch.
Ella also drove me crazy. I understand that she doesn't want to believe another of her father's crazy theories but her attitude to her mother is really annoying. She doesn't like her mother being in a new relationship so refuses to talk to her and ignores the texts that Kate sends about the pandemic out of spite. She KNOWS that her mother is the calm and rational parent and would not make up a pandemic or feed that story to Frank for no reason but still she decides to ignore all warnings to get out the city and go to her dad. Your mother works at the CDC so for goodness sake LISTEN when she tells you to go! But Ella of course knows best and finds herself stuck in New York when the pandemic hits and gets all whiny about her circumstances. Funny how she is happy to quote to the soldiers who mummy is when it suits her!
Ella's entire storyline bugged me. She is supposed to be an adult at 19 but her behaviour to her parents is really childish. She steals gloves and masks when she leaves the hospital, which seems smart, but when they go back to the locked down campus where people are falling sick, she leaves them in the truck. Useful. She had no need to even leave the truck! When she finally gets to talk to her mother who is trying to get her off the campus, she deliberatly refuses to tell her she loves her before hanging up like a petty little child. Such gratitude. And now because of her stupidity, her dad and Sal are facing a dangerous journey to the city to rescue her. Mind you, some of their decisions on the road are pretty dumb too. Sitting outside the bank in a small town with your guns on full display IS going to attract the attention of the local police!
I really liked Sal and Frank and I hope they both make it through the crisis but I just wasn't that interested in Ella's chapters. I found some of the situations frustrating to read about and I guess I wasn't fully invested in all aspects of it. It is a decent apocalypse story but I think it's time for me to admit that the writing of the author and his characters are just not suiting me personally and look elsewhere for my reads.
2.5 stars.