R. Scott Reiss, Black Monday

Black Monday

R. Scott Reiss

Simon & Schuster, Feb 2007, $25.00

ISBN: 0743297644

The world is stunned when a microbe devastates oil. Gas-generated transportation no longer exists, beginning an urban isolation. Computers fail once their batteries run out as electricity no longer is produced. Food supplies to the big cities end. Government fails soon afterward as street gangs rule small territories. None of the leaders who whined about foreign oil dependency understood how deep the globe depended on this commodity until the pandemic disaster began.

Still, some government agencies continue to try to solve the calamity before the point of no return. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Greg Gillette seeks a cure to the pandemic disaster which he believes he will obtain faster if he can find ground zero where this microbe was initially unleashed on an unsuspecting oil guzzling planet than hiding in his lab. He knows time is running out on mankind, but he fears he is stretched too thin to complete either of his missions.

BLACK MONDAY is an exhilarating thriller based on how intrusive oil is in everyday life well beyond gas for a car so that if something destroyed the supply, humanity would be devastated. The storyline is fast-paced as the clock ticks with the likable, desperate hero scurrying around the countryside seeking clues as to what happened. Though a bit of petrol science, especially how the microbe works, would have enhanced the tale, fans of 100-octane save the world novels will want to read this thrilling saga that will make a terrific action movie as already planned.

Harriet Klausner