Bite: The most gripping thriller you will ever read

Good page turner. Keeps the suspense going, well written and good characters and plot, a bookwell worth the read. Recommend

Even more than usual, the reviews screamed out at me that this book was 'The Best Read You'll Ever Have!!!'. They were wrong. It isn't even the best read I've had this week (at least four newspaper articles beat it hands down). If I had just stumbled across this blindly, I might have gone for an extra, fourth, star (if I was feeling generous) but the hype leaves me feeling cheated.The problem lies in the inconsistency of the writing. The story thread relies on the deliberate introduction of a new mosquito, that carries a deadly and incurable new form of malaria, into western Europe. There's lots of detailed science stuff in the story and that part is excellent; I lapped up the techno jargon and not being treated as an idiot by the author. But those bits are parachuted into a pretty 'pulp fiction' story. The whole writing style is immature and amateur. It shows lots of detailed research but the penmanship that delivers that detail is woefully lacking and I imagined a teenaged girl writing it.The events and some of the characters are just so unbelievable and clumsily executed as to be, well, unbelievable. Whole plot threads just don't make logical sense and the main character is both brilliant and stupid by turns. Every single main character is a cartoon parody and you feel as though secondary characters have a sign saying 'Dies in the next chapter' pinned to their clothing. Then there's the root of the plot threads themselves. As a middle aged man, I recognised at least four or five scenes from films or other books in here and I kept waiting for the crop dusting plane to swoop over the head of our hero (it doesn't, by the way). The science is highly original; the rest of it is not just trite, it's old trite.Curiously, there is a second story running through the book that purports to be the diary entries of one of the female protagonists. The events that take place in this sub-story are also credulity-stretching (an evil African tyrant too squeamish to commit rape, for example) but the writing style itself is much better. I preferred the sub-plot to the plot.The ending, when it, mercifully, comes, is both telegraphed and disappointing.So why, having given 'Bite' a canning, have I awarded four stars? Because the science bits are very good indeed and, at 99p for the Kindle version, I was hardly ripped off. There are some adolescent boys out there who will love this, and a few girls too but, for me, I'd have done better just buying a text book.

This was our book club read for May and one I was quite intrigued about. Billing your novel as "the most gripping thriller you'll ever read" is making some statement and despite not wanting to like this book because of its arrogant strapline I did rather like it. It was fast-paced, gritty, shocking and absurd in places which are all the elements you want for a gripping thriller (God I hate myself for saying that!!) ;)The book flips back and forth between the present day and Max's efforts to find Erica and Erica's experiences as an aid worker in Africa during the 1990s which are through diary entries (you need to be prepared for the story to slip in and out of Erica's diary within chapters and also that they're not real diary entries because of the style in which they're written). As you're reading you're trying desperately to find the link between the two and although I had my suspicions I was wrong...again! Be aware there are several scenes of torture on male and female victims which some readers may not like.Is it amazing writing and going to win awards? No. Is it a good piece of entertainment that you lose yourself in for a few hours...yes! Reminds me of the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman.General book club consensus was 2 liked it (includes me, and both of us read it in 2 days), 2 struggled with characters and some of the absurdity and never really got into it, and 1 sat on the fence :)My overall feeling is that it was a good read, and will be a book that people pick up so can they prove the author wrong for claiming it's "the most gripping thriller you'll ever read" but actually, they just might like it.

CONTAINS SPOILERS!Mr. B. gave up on this book after 2 chapters but I struggled through to the end. It wasn't thatthe writing or grammar was bad, but it jumped about all over the place. There were so manystrands to the story and in the end some of them were not even resolved.Max flies from USA to Holland and a fellow passenger secretly releases deadly mosquitoes, whichare carrying a new strain of malaria. Max' girlfriend, Erica, is about to give a lecture at a scientificconference where she will unveil her research on a miracle cure for malaria. She disappears beforethe conference - is she dead, kidnapped or just running away from something or someone?Her fellow scientists are squabbling amongst themselves and some were looking forward to Erica'slecture and others are scathing about it.There is an unpleasant billionaire owner of a drugs company, who is only interested in making drugs forrich people, so a malarial drug wouldn't be a profit for him. Shame - as he was bitten on Max's plane anddevelops malaria!The malaria cases are rapidly spreading and baffling the scientists and the hospital doctors and panickingthe politicians.Max tries to find Erica and becomes involved with the Police, including a bad one; with a lady thief,her thug of a "minder", etc. There is another thread about a Minister from Zaire who claims to be an oldfriend of Erica and lends Max a bodyguard and a gun to help find her.Then there is a psychopath whom Max thinks has kidnapped Erica and who tries to kill Max and the ladythief many times. and so on and so on! It made your head spin to try and keep up.And then there were flashbacks throughout the whole book (which I found more interesting) of Erica about10 years before when she worked as an aid in Zaire during the atrocities between warring factions. Sheand several friends were captured, imprisoned and treated appallingly and tortured. Could this have anything todo with her disappearance?The ending of the book seemed hurried and a lot of things were not resolved - did the thug who captured andabused Erica in Zaire get his comeuppance? or the bad cop? Did the patients recover from malaria? etc.I tried to like this book but just couldn't.