Robert Liparulo gives us a genuinely terrifying thrill ride here, using a menace born in the racial hatred of the Third Reich, nurtured by a personal vendetta, and brought to life by 21st-century technology. And it’s all the more frightening for being far too plausible.

The stakes here are nothing less than the control of a designer virus, keyed to the DNA of specific victims, about to be set loose on the public. Liparulo gets the maximum mileage out of it as his characters fight to stay alive long enough to unravel the mystery and eliminate the danger while being hunted by an implacable, almost superhuman assassin.

Four stars for this page-turner. ( )

When I came across Germ by Robert Liparulo, I was initially excited to see it featured the Ebola virus used in germ warfare. That premise alone made me anxious to read it. Once the concept that the virus was modified, encoded, to attack the specific DNA of individuals was introduced in the "Facts" section at the beginning of the novel, I was hooked. In Germ, special agent Julia Matheson must figure out what is happening and why she and Dr. Allen Parker are being targeted by assassins before the deadly weaponized infection is released to ten thousand people.

While it would appear that the premise would be enough to keep readers interested in the plot, the short chapters and switching to the view point of multiple characters made this novel feel choppy. Additionally, the number of gun fights, chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat, narrow escapes, etc., could have been edited down. This would have tightened up the novel and helped the pacing. As difficult as it seems, I was becoming bored with the sheer overwhelming number of fight scenes.

There is no "who done it" mystery to solve, so the main suspense is in asking what will happen next. The action scenes are the star of the novel, with the Ebola virus taking a back seat to it. Ebola is horrific enough that I will admit to being a bit disappointed that it didn't take a more prominent place in the action throughout the novel.

This is Christian fiction, but I don't think that that really matters at all except for the lack of colorful language. There really are not pages of theological discussions. One character is a minister and there were a few Biblical quotes, but that's about it. All in all, it was okay for a thriller (but not so much for a virus novel).
Recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
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I doubt I'll read any more of his books. ( )

This is a high-octane read! It was not at all what I expected but I loved it. I haveshared this book with my friends and they love it as well. It is about germ warfare but mostly a thrilling read. I highly recommend it!! ( )

Robert Liparulo's Germ had many positive reviews so I downloaded it for my Nook for free. The no fee should have been a warning to me that the book was not good. I made it to page 148 of the 495 page book and had to stop. The quality of the writing is poor and I would have to agree with one reviewer that it was probably written by a second grader. The plot idea was good but it was not well executed. The plot is supposed to be about a strain of the Ebola virus having the ability to target specific people through their DNA. However, everything I read up to page 148 were chase scenes. The characters were flat and uninteresting. Germ is on my top 5 list of lousy books. ( )