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Editorial Content for Child Zero

Book

Child Zero

Contributors

Christine M. Irvin

Reviewer (text)

Christine M. Irvin

Four years ago, bacterial infections started spreading across the globe. Modern-day antibiotics were no longer effective to treat them, leading to thousands of deaths. Now, a common cold can kill. Chemotherapy can’t be used anymore because it weakens the body’s immune system to the point of being useless. Most surgeries have been canceled due to the great risk of infection. Sick people are being isolated from the general population in special hospitals, but they are not there to be healed --- they are there to die. Read More

Teaser

It began four years ago with a worldwide uptick of bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance soon roiled across the globe. Diseases long thought beaten came surging back. The death toll skyrocketed. Then New York City was ravaged by the most heinous act of bioterror the world had ever seen. Detective Jacob Gibson, who lost his wife in the 8/17 attack, is home caring for his sick daughter when his partner summons him to a sprawling shantytown in Central Park, the apparent site of a mass murder. Jake is startled to discover that, despite a life of abject squalor, the victims died in perfect health --- and his only hope of finding answers is a 12-year-old boy on the run from some very dangerous men.

Promo

It began four years ago with a worldwide uptick of bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance soon roiled across the globe. Diseases long thought beaten came surging back. The death toll skyrocketed. Then New York City was ravaged by the most heinous act of bioterror the world had ever seen. Detective Jacob Gibson, who lost his wife in the 8/17 attack, is home caring for his sick daughter when his partner summons him to a sprawling shantytown in Central Park, the apparent site of a mass murder. Jake is startled to discover that, despite a life of abject squalor, the victims died in perfect health --- and his only hope of finding answers is a 12-year-old boy on the run from some very dangerous men.

About the Book

From molecular biologist turned Anthony Award-winning author of THE KILLING KIND comes a fact-based thriller about our species’ next great existential threat --- perfect for fans of Michael Crichton.

It began four years ago with a worldwide uptick of bacterial infections: meningitis in Frankfurt, cholera in Johannesburg, tuberculosis in New Delhi. Although the outbreaks spread aggressively and proved impervious to our drugs of last resort, public health officials initially dismissed them as unrelated.

They were wrong. Antibiotic resistance soon roiled across the globe. Diseases long thought beaten came surging back. The death toll skyrocketed. Then New York City was ravaged by the most heinous act of bioterror the world had ever seen, perpetrated by a new brand of extremist bent on pushing humanity to extinction.

Detective Jacob Gibson, who lost his wife in the 8/17 attack, is home caring for his sick daughter when his partner summons him to a sprawling shantytown in Central Park, the apparent site of a mass murder. Jake is startled to discover that, despite a life of abject squalor, the victims died in perfect health --- and his only hope of finding answers is a 12-year-old boy on the run from some very dangerous men.

Audiobook available, read by Robert Petkoff

June 17, 2022

My last few weeks have been anything but quiet and calm. So when I was looking for a book to read this week, I wanted more of an escape than something heavy. MEANT TO BE by Emily Giffin is a book that I have talked about during our “Bookaccino Live” events and library previews over the last few months. And it was just the escape that I needed this week. I loved it! You can read on for more about why it worked for me later in this newsletter as it is a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection.

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Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta

June 2022

There are times when I get a sneak peek at a book long before it comes out. That is what happened with Tom Perrotta’s TRACY FLICK CAN’T WIN, which I read last October. I completely disappeared into it on a warm Saturday afternoon on the deck.

Here, Tracy Flick is in line to become the new public school principal in a small town in New Jersey when the reigning principal, Jack Weede, announces his retirement to explore the country with his wife in a Winnebago. For a few moments, it looks like Tracy has it all nailed, and then… Well, Perrotta flips the story around again and again…and again. There were many laugh-out-loud moments, but more than that, I was in awe of his storytelling, which is both comic and so truthful. He shifted the story from chapter to chapter, which ramped up the pace and the action, and I just kept reading. He made me question the town’s heroes, as well as those with all the power. But in the end, it does feel like everyone got their due. Still, it was quite a rocky and brilliantly circuitous road to getting that done. It was crowned my first Bets On selection of 2022 way back then.

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Meant to Be by Emily Giffin

June 2022

Those who follow Emily Giffin know that she loves the Kennedys and the Queen/monarchy. MEANT TO BE is a veiled and oh-so-fun look at John Jr. and his crazy romantic life right up to the time he falls head first in love.

Here Joseph S. Kingsley III (see what I mean about the veiled reference?) falls for a woman he meets by chance who is out of his social circle. Cate Cooper has a checkered past, which includes a stepfather who berates her and beats on her mom. She is discovered as a model, moves to New York and meets Joe there. He is impetuous and a true free spirit. His mom wants him destined for political life; his dad had been killed in an accident, so the family legacy all hinges on him. He has flunked the bar twice, has been photographed in a seemingly unending list of compromising positions, and has what we call “a reputation.” As drawn as she is to him, Cate wants to keep him at arm’s length. The book is just plain fun. We know this will dip in crazy directions, and there will be romantic and embarrassing moments. The media will be all over them. And they will try to outsmart them.

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Joshua Moehling, author of And There He Kept Her

When two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of prescription drugs, what starts as a simple burglary turns into a nightmare for all involved. Emmett Burr has secrets he's been keeping in his basement for more than two decades, and he'll do anything to keep his past from being revealed. As he gets the upper hand on his tormentors, the lines blur between victim, abuser and protector.

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July 2022 Bookaccino Live Event

Links to https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vsTcermsTSmk9u7VwKQ5Lg.

June 14, 2022

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 13th and June 20th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for June, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, Oprah's Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.

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June 14, 2022

This Bookreporter.com Special Newsletter spotlights a book that we think is a great summer reading selection. Read more about it, and enter our Summer Reading Contest by Wednesday, June 15th at noon ET for a chance to win one of five copies of TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON by Chris Pavone, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available. Please note that each contest is only open for 24 hours, so you will need to act quickly!

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James Lee Burke, author of Every Cloak Rolled in Blood

Novelist Aaron Holland Broussard is shattered when his daughter, Fannie Mae, dies suddenly. As he tries to honor her memory by saving two young men from a life of crime amid their opioid-ravaged community, he is drawn into a network of villainy that includes a violent former Klansman, a far-from-holy minister, a biker club posing as evangelicals, and a murderer who has been hiding in plain sight. Aaron’s only ally is state police officer Ruby Spotted Horse, a no-nonsense woman who harbors some powerful secrets in her cellar. Despite the air of mystery surrounding her, Ruby is the only one Aaron can trust. That is, until the ghost of Fannie Mae shows up, guiding her father through a tangled web of the present and past.

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David Sedaris, author of Happy-Go-Lucky

Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask --- or not --- was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America.

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