The Judas Virus

Rating:
Summary: He's done it again!!
Review: D.J. Donaldson (aka David Best) has written another "edge of your seat book". If you like medical thrillers, you won't want to miss this book. The "thrilling" part of Donaldson's books is that he takes his plot lines from real medical research as an insider. I don't want to discuss the plot to keep from giving something away. But I will tell you that it gives you insight into what is going on in the scientific world. His characters are not just an means to an end, they are genuine and real. I fell in love with his mystery writing when I read his Andy Broussard and Kit Franklin series (Cajun Nights, Blood on the Bayou, No Mardi Gras for the Dead, etc). Now it's move over Cornwell, Donaldson is my favorite medical thriller author too. I definitely would recommend Judas Virus along with his last two thrillers, Do No Harm and In the Blood.

Rating:
Summary: A pig liver transplant and a virus
Review: I normally don't read medical thrillers, but this was a great book.

Chris Collins' father, Wayne, has just come back into her life after almost thirty years. He has come asking for a part of her liver. He is a recovering alcoholic in need of a liver transplant. Due to his alcoholism, he can't be moved up in the list if his need becomes greater. He has heard that a relative can give him a portion of their liver and that portion will regenerate in the donor and the portion given will grow into a full liver for him.

Chris is not sure what she thinks of her father's return, but she knows she can't give him a portion of her liver. Instead she is able to get him into a new program that will transplant a genetically altered pig's liver into a human.

The transplant goes very well. Then Wayne has a fever. There are so many precautions taken to prevent from infecting Wayne or anyone else, but still they keep a close eye on him. He gets well quickly and they figure all is well. Matter of fact, things seem to be going extremely well, better than expected.

When some nurses that took care of him die, they start looking into whether this could be related to the transplant. Then some more people die. They can't figure out how these people tie back to the transplant.

Chris feels responsible and works hard at investigating the various deaths, including looking into where their lives might have intersected.

The pace in this book is great. It keeps you wondering what will happen next. I found it difficult to put down.

The characters interact well and there is enough uncertainty that you can't easily figure out too soon what is going on. It is very well written.

I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A pig liver transplant and a virus
Review: I normally don't read medical thrillers, but this was a great book.

Chris Collins' father, Wayne, has just come back into her life after almost thirty years. He has come asking for a part of her liver. He is a recovering alcoholic in need of a liver transplant. Due to his alcoholism, he can't be moved up in the list if his need becomes greater. He has heard that a relative can give him a portion of their liver and that portion will regenerate in the donor and the portion given will grow into a full liver for him.

Chris is not sure what she thinks of her father's return, but she knows she can't give him a portion of her liver. Instead she is able to get him into a new program that will transplant a genetically altered pig's liver into a human.

The transplant goes very well. Then Wayne has a fever. There are so many precautions taken to prevent from infecting Wayne or anyone else, but still they keep a close eye on him. He gets well quickly and they figure all is well. Matter of fact, things seem to be going extremely well, better than expected.

When some nurses that took care of him die, they start looking into whether this could be related to the transplant. Then some more people die. They can't figure out how these people tie back to the transplant.

Chris feels responsible and works hard at investigating the various deaths, including looking into where their lives might have intersected.

The pace in this book is great. It keeps you wondering what will happen next. I found it difficult to put down.

The characters interact well and there is enough uncertainty that you can't easily figure out too soon what is going on. It is very well written.

I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner....
Review: I rarely read "medical mysteries," but "The Judas Virus" held me from the first page. It is an exceptional book, which focuses primarily on the emotional rescue of a young female physician.

The book centers around the problems which ensue when a pig liver is transferred into the body of her recently sobered, alcoholic father who hasn't been in her life for over 25 years.
It is a story of redemption and it is a story of growth.

The suspense is brilliant and the book is excellent.

Rating:
Summary: A Page Turner....
Review: I rarely read "medical mysteries," but "The Judas Virus" held me from the first page. It is an exceptional book, which focuses primarily on the emotional rescue of a young female physician.

The book centers around the problems which ensue when a pig liver is transferred into the body of her recently sobered, alcoholic father who hasn't been in her life for over 25 years.
It is a story of redemption and it is a story of growth.

The suspense is brilliant and the book is excellent.

Rating:
Summary: good but not great
Review: I read DO NO HARM by this author and loved it. It was taut with
mystery and suspense. JUDAS VIRUS is a really good book, but not great. It contains alot of mystery and a fair amount of suspense, but at the same time, it was a little disjointed. The premise of the story and the ending did not flow together as well as I thought it should have. The relationship between the main character; chris, and her father started out believeable but the author had her lashing out through the whole story and was a bit over the top. There was a little too much "teenage drama".

All in all, this is a good book and would be well worth your time reading. I enjoyed the story and it kept you guessing till the very end. The only problem I found was the author's effort in bringing it all to a close.

Rating:
Summary: One of the BEST, by Best
Review: If you enjoy intriguing mysteries with many a medical twist, The Judas Virus is one of the top reads of its genera. David Best (aka Don Donaldson) knows how to weave medical intrigue, many a sub plot and spell binding prose into the warp and woof of a novel. Given that the author teaches in a medical school, his gifts as a novelist are greatly enhanced by his compelling authority in the medical arts. David Best uses the English language to keep you turning pages, much like the writer of a symphony keeps you coming back to hear the next movement of her musical creation. Motive, mystery, malice, misunderstanding, mistrust, and medicine are all tools that David Best uses to keep your mind keenly tune for reading pleasure.

Best creates ethical situations in this novel that challenge not only the medical professions, but also the personal sensibilities of the reader. The actions of his characters cause one to pause and think about one's own decision-making processes

I would also recommend two other novels by the same author (Don Donaldson) Do No Harm, and In The Blood. I must say that these two novels, along with The Judas Virus, though unrelated, form a triangle of treasures that will make you look forward to the author's next novel.

Rating:
Summary: One of the BEST, by Best
Review: If you enjoy intriguing mysteries with many a medical twist, The Judas Virus is one of the top reads of its genera. David Best (aka Don Donaldson) knows how to weave medical intrigue, many a sub plot and spell binding prose into the warp and woof of a novel. Given that the author teaches in a medical school, his gifts as a novelist are greatly enhanced by his compelling authority in the medical arts. David Best uses the English language to keep you turning pages, much like the writer of a symphony keeps you coming back to hear the next movement of her musical creation. Motive, mystery, malice, misunderstanding, mistrust, and medicine are all tools that David Best uses to keep your mind keenly tune for reading pleasure.

Best creates ethical situations in this novel that challenge not only the medical professions, but also the personal sensibilities of the reader. The actions of his characters cause one to pause and think about one's own decision-making processes

I would also recommend two other novels by the same author (Don Donaldson) Do No Harm, and In The Blood. I must say that these two novels, along with The Judas Virus, though unrelated, form a triangle of treasures that will make you look forward to the author's next novel.

Rating:
Summary: The Judas Virus
Review: In his debut novel as David Best, a well-known mystery writer, as I've gleaned from some of these other reviews, has mutated genres into the fascinating world of medical thrillers. I have to concur with Tess Gerritsen who notes on the cover that, "He is one of the very few authors who can write with convincing authority."

Beneath that striking cover, "The Judas Virus" unleashes a thoroughly entertaining, yet plausible story about the experimental xenotransplantation of a genetically altered pig's liver into a recovering alcoholic. Best's protagonist, Chris Collins, medical director for infection control at Good Samaritan hospital, hasn't seen her father since he left her mother for another woman 29 years ago. Out of the blue he shows up at the hospital dying from cirrhosis and asks Chris to donate a portion of her liver to save his miserable life. "...a visit to his parts warehouse," as Best phrased it, filling Chris with, "so much disgust that she couldn't stand to look at him another second." Because her whole life is dedicated to helping the sick, she is immediately caught in a conflict of emotions and ultimately winds up proposing the experimental surgery. Ironically, the surgery produces an unexpected retrovirus with surprising therapeutic effects. The story turns as Best conjures mental images of impending devastation by giving us glimpses of the virus' deleterious side effects on well drawn secondary characters and the tertiary characters they infect. He gives his readers not only a visual sense of location, but auditory, olfactory and sensory preceptions as well, which he adeptly weaves into the story line to put us there.

Personally, I read fiction for amusement. I rarely find it necessary to either praise or trash a novel and have difficulty understanding those who do. Mel Brooks said it best in his "History of the World Part II." "Twenty million years ago the earth gave birth to the artist, and as inevitably followed, the afterbirth: The Critic." Or something like that. Anyway, the heart of Guy M. DeWitte's review above is directly behind his name, i.e. (see more about "ME"). I linked to his web page and found that afterbirth isn't very pretty. It takes minimal effort to write a dozen or so sentences badmouthing the work that's obviously taken real authors months or years to complete. If Mr. DeWitte thinks the books he reads are so bad, he probably shouldn't waste his time finishing them. Instead, maybe he could spend it writing his own books and exposing them to such hackneyed critics as himself.

At any rate, "The Judas Virus" isn't your standard "Genie out of the bottle" epidemic story. As the therapeutic effects from the retrovirus wane and it becomes lethal, the book makes you stop and think that something like this could really happen. Leonard Goldberg says, "[It's] A fast paced medical thriller with believable characters and plenty of twists and turns."

I think "The Judas Virus" is page-turning, cutting-edge fiction that will leave you asking what else is going on out there? I read it straight through and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't wait for David Best's next book to come out. I don't need anyone to tell me what's good and what's bad. However, I am more apt to give credence to those who know what it takes to write a novel. Tess Gerritsen and Leonard S. Goldberg are certainly two who do.

Rating:
Summary: A good recreational read
Review: Judas Virus is a good recreational read. It kept me involved and turning the pages. Mr. Best has done his homework and presents the medical technology, upon which the story is based, very well. The basic story line is very believable and well written. I had a little problem believing the main character, Dr. Chris Collins could be quite so introspective and "forgiving" of the various bad things that happen to her and yet still hold such a grudge against her father. She has a stronger sense of humanity than I could ever muster for the "bad guys". Other than that it certainly kept my interest from cover to cover. I read a lot of high tech fiction and speculative fiction and this would rate a solid 3 and a half stars but since I wasn't given the half star choice I went with the round up. It deserves better than 3 stars. I would read another book by Mr. Best and will probably look up some of his earlier works.