Jon Land has long been one of the top “high-octane” authors working today. In fact, he often leaves others with this designation in the dust in much the same way as Secretariat used to leave his opponents. MARGARET TRUMAN’S MURDER AT THE CDC is a perfect example of this. It breaks quickly out of the gate and never lets up.

What sets Land’s books apart from other thrillers in this style is that his stories never lack for substance. His latest novel seems to pick up more and more data and vital background information with each passing section, which keeps the intrigue at a nice, elevated level throughout. Structurally, it is set up like the literary version of a Steven Soderbergh film with numerous characters playing their roles, some of whom never actually meet, but each remaining necessary to the story and the inevitable explosive outcome.

"MURDER AT THE CDC...just does not let up.... The last section is a literal race against time to prevent a massive and indefensible bioterrorism attack within our own borders like nothing we have ever seen before."

A brief but important scene set in the year 2017 opens the action as a tanker driven by two members of the military is battling through a winding road in the middle of a violent storm. They lose control of the huge truck, the dashboard lights flicker and die, and it drops off into oblivion. We will learn later the deadly cargo this vehicle was carrying at the time of its sudden disappearance.

In the present, word of a shooting at the Capitol spreads quickly on the news wire, and reports surface that the shooter was screaming out Biblical phrases as he fired. Once the dust settles, there are seven victims, all of whom were visitors from a local high school on a field trip. Kelly Loftus of the Capitol Police comes across a woman holding a purse chanting, “I know why he did this.”

Private investigator Robert Brixton rushes to the scene because his grandson was on that school trip. Fourteen-year-old Max is alive and swears that they were the killer’s targets. Kelly meets up later with her colleague, Xander Peel, who shares that the shooter’s name is Philip Rappaport and the woman she encountered is his wife.

A hate group led by radical separatist Deacon Frank Wilhyte may have been behind the attack, and this just may be the tip of the iceberg. We learn that his group has close ties to Senator Byron Fitch, who helped in their efforts to locate that missing tanker from 2017. It carried a substance known by many different scientific terms, as well as one really scary street name: “White Death.” Mere drops of White Death could kill a single human being, and the tanker was loaded with it.

Before teaming up with Brixton, Kelly is conducting her own investigation. She is trying to figure out why Philip Rappaport had called both the CDC and Senator Fitch’s office prior to his shooting spree. When a death occurs at the CDC, a possible murder or suicide from poisoning, things really start to get interesting. Somewhere at a lab in Colorado, Dr. Efrem Lutayne is about to meet up with a mysterious figure who is known to Brixton. They will be directly involved in the hunt for White Death and its deadly administration.

MURDER AT THE CDC, the 31st installment in the Capital Crimes series started by the late Margaret Truman, just does not let up. The last section is a literal race against time to prevent a massive and indefensible bioterrorism attack within our own borders like nothing we have ever seen before. This modern tale of terror is sure to keep you up long into the night until the final page has been turned.