Reviews

by Edwina Currie (former MP and UK minister of health)

This has to be one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read. It’s an excellent yarn.

Dr. Paul Caine, a scientist at the Animal Health Institute in the UK, attends a conference in San Francisco where another delegate, Dr. al-Jaheerah, is murdered. Meanwhile a foreign agent is driving about the American mid-West spraying foot-and-mouth disease in various locations. Bio-terrorism, the author implies, would be even easier than the attack on the World Trade Center, and far more devastating to the American economy.

Caine turns detective, one step ahead of a seductive Chinese spy, Chen Xiao Lin. He also gets in bed (literally) with gorgeous pouting FBI agent Angela Garcia and stunning conference promoter Laura McMann. Somewhere in between he manages to solve most of the mystery and is in time to confront the brains behind it all, who is….

No! Read it yourself. Download and enjoy. A cross between Michael Crichton and Ian Fleming, it had me hooked. In the end, I simply sat on the sofa and devoured it.

Much detail describes how the virus might be collected from a dead cow in some god-forsaken country, then painstakingly transferred onto paper (which could be sent by post) or sent as a powder. Not exactly easy, but since the disease is not transferable to humans, not dangerous either. Pretty smelly, but that’s not likely to put terrorists off. The process of reactivating the bug and delivering it by hand-held spray gun is so straightforward one wonders why it hasn’t been tried already.

As a blueprint, this book might be considered dangerous in itself. Because of its theme, I should call for it to be banned.

The scientific knowledge on display is breathtaking. Richard A Collins is a scientist working in Hong Kong who recently patented kits to detect bird flu and SARS. Scottish-educated, he’s published many learned papers including one on the treatment of HIV with Chinese medicinal herbs. This is his first fiction.

Under a Blood Red Sky is a splendid debut.

I wish Dr. Collins well, and look forward to the next one.

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