Spiral

Spiral
by Paul McEuen
Dial, 2011. 310 pgs. Mystery

Microcrawlers and a death-dealing fungus combine in this thriller that begins just after World War II when the Navy bombs its own sailors to destroy a biological weapon designed by the Japanese to exact a terrible revenge on the allies. Liam Connor was on a ship at the scene along with Hitoshi Katano, one of seven men sent to disperse the fungus. Six are accounted for. Connor finds the last cylinder slotted into one of Katano's finger bones. He pretends to throw it into the ocean but he really keeps it. Years later Connor is a distinguished professor at Cornell University and the leading expert in the world on fungi. When his body is found at the bottom of one of Cornell's famous gorges, suicide is the verdict, but security footage of a mysterious woman on the bridge with Dr. Connor suggests otherwise. Maggie, Liam's granddaughter, Dylan, his great-grandson, and Professor Jake Sterling are instantly and almost irretrievably endangered as they are stalked by a frightening Chinese assassin and psychopath named Orchid. McEuen's debut novel is breathtaking in every sense of the word. A terrific and deeply unsettling thriller to begin the summer reading season.

LW