Pandemic (The Extinction Files, Book 1)   A.G. Riddle.  2017.

When Desmond Hughes, a successful venture capitalist, wakes up in his Berlin hotel room he has no memory of his past, there is a dead body on the floor, and security is knocking at the door.

Across the ocean, Dr. Peyton Shaw, an epidemiologist with CDC, races to Kenya to investigate and contain a virulent Ebola-like outbreak.

The two quickly discover they are both fighting against time to save the world as we know it. The virus spreads, infecting and killing a staggering number of people, and governments begin to crumble. But the pandemic may be just the beginning of a more insidious plot. A covert, elitist group called Citium plans to remake the world into a utopia. This just happens to require an unavoidable few – million – casualties.

On the run from the police and Citium, Desmond slowly regains his past, memory by memory. To his horror, he discovers he has played a pivotal role in the nightmare taking place around him.

Desmond’s and Peyton’s paths – and past – cross and they unite with Avery, a U.S. government operative, to strike at the heart of Citium and find a cure for the virus. But not everyone is who they appear to be. And it may already be too late for the infected.

Riddle has blended medical suspense, shoot-‘em-up military action, spy thriller, and a bit of historical and science fiction into a very satisfying read. Pandemic is a mighty book, pushing 700 pages, but the story flies by, spanning the globe and nearly a century. Memories and diaries are clues to unravelling Citium’s plot and Riddle deftly takes us in place and time to Australia, the arid plains of Oklahoma, WWII London during the blitz, Nairobi, the Arctic Ocean, and beyond.

Although Pandemic could have had more of an edge, Riddle’s time was well-spent developing his compelling characters and their surprisingly entangled histories.  Pandemic is a fast-paced, imaginative thriller with all around good storytelling.  A cliffhanger ending leaves us eagerly looking forward to the sequel, Genome, due out in November.