Rating: 
Summary: One Fabulous Roller Coaster of a Thriller.....
Review: It all started in Fort Walton Beach, Florida when Dr Carol Mayer's emergency room began to fill up with tourists complaining of cold and flu-like symptoms. Within hours, it was obvious this was no summer cold or flu. The sick were getting worse by the minute, spiking high fevers, and developing severe respiratory complications, before keeling over and dying a horrible, gruesome death. As the CDC heads to Florida, and the wheels of government begin turning, former CIA bioterrorism expert, Beck Casey, is called back inside for a mission he can't refuse. Washington is already aware of this deadly virus, even the almost impossible circumstances of where it came from and what it can do, and feel Beck's expertise is their best weapon against what could turn out to be a pandemic of unrivaled proportion. As the virus begins to spread worldwide, cities are quarantined, hysteria mounts, law and order collapses, and citizens begin to act irrationally. Beck Casey circles the globe, forming alliances and meeting with some of our worst enemies to stop this scourge and save the human race, and this mission has become very personal. His only daughter, he learns, is vacationing at ground zero, Fort Walton Beach..... Tighten your seatbelt, Earl Merkel is about to take you on the roller coaster ride of your life with his marvelous debut novel, Final Epidemic. This is a thriller that has it all... a fast paced plot filled with vivid and riveting scenes, engaging writing that pulls you into the story and never lets go, and a diverse and interesting cast of well drawn characters. But it's Mr Merkel's indepth, detailed research and knowledge in the areas of biological warfare, epidemics, and pandemics that make this novel stand out and dazzle, and once you begin reading, be prepared to finish this book in one sitting. And as he weaves his intriguing story lines toward their stunning climax, you'll be on the edge of your seat, waiting to see if the world as we now know it will continue to exist. Final Epidemic has the one thing all great thrillers need to be a great success... plausibility. Make sure you put this novel at the top of your "must read" list. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: One Fabulous Roller Coaster of a Thriller.....
Review: It all started in Fort Walton Beach, Florida when Dr Carol Mayer's emergency room began to fill up with tourists complaining of cold and flu-like symptoms. Within hours, it was obvious this was no summer cold or flu. The sick were getting worse by the minute, spiking high fevers, and developing severe respiratory complications, before keeling over and dying a horrible, gruesome death. As the CDC heads to Florida, and the wheels of government begin turning, former CIA bioterrorism expert, Beck Casey, is called back inside for a mission he can't refuse. Washington is already aware of this deadly virus, even the almost impossible circumstances of where it came from and what it can do, and feel Beck's expertise is their best weapon against what could turn out to be a pandemic of unrivaled proportion. As the virus begins to spread worldwide, cities are quarantined, hysteria mounts, law and order collapses, and citizens begin to act irrationally. Beck Casey circles the globe, forming alliances and meeting with some of our worst enemies to stop this scourge and save the human race, and this mission has become very personal. His only daughter, he learns, is vacationing at ground zero, Fort Walton Beach..... Tighten your seatbelt, Earl Merkel is about to take you on the roller coaster ride of your life with his marvelous debut novel, Final Epidemic. This is a thriller that has it all... a fast paced plot filled with vivid and riveting scenes, engaging writing that pulls you into the story and never lets go, and a diverse and interesting cast of well drawn characters. But it's Mr Merkel's indepth, detailed research and knowledge in the areas of biological warfare, epidemics, and pandemics that make this novel stand out and dazzle, and once you begin reading, be prepared to finish this book in one sitting. And as he weaves his intriguing story lines toward their stunning climax, you'll be on the edge of your seat, waiting to see if the world as we now know it will continue to exist. Final Epidemic has the one thing all great thrillers need to be a great success... plausibility. Make sure you put this novel at the top of your "must read" list. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A Well Written Nightmare!
Review: It begins with a pounding headache, joint pain, and a runny nose. The typical summer cold in appearance and it is highly contagious. For some, the symptoms escalate rapidly and within hours they are dead. For others, the agony goes on as the coughing slowly worsens and the vomiting begins. The lungs begin to shred and the victims begin to drown in their own bodily fluids.Instead of a summer cold, a bioweapon has been unleashed into Florida and Russia by a doomsday cult in Japan. When their cult leader is sentenced to death for the 1995 Sarin gas attack the cult pronounces sentence on the world. The virus, a modified version of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed millions is released. The cult commits ritualistic suicide condemning humanity to its fate. As civilized society begins to crack at the seams, the President summons Beck Casey, now a professor from his self imposed exile. During his work with the CIA, Beck wrote the book on biological warfare and its implications on society. Beck has bad memories from his CIA work and for justifiable reasons is less than thrilled to be dealing with the CIA, let alone having to go back to Russia. Regardless of his feelings, his mission is to find a vaccine, a serum, anything left behind by the cultists that might save humanity from its fate. This book is very well written and as enjoyable as any fictionalized novel on the subject could possible be. Before the terror attacks of nearly two years ago, I looked at such books as nothing more than escapist literature much like killer asteroids from space, rogue comets, and the like. Doomsday scenarios that I wasn't likely to ever see or worry about. Just nothing more than a fun read as people tried to survive. Then the attacks happened and the son of my best friend who just happened to be a little late for work that day was still on a ferry as the first plane struck. Others were not so lucky and lives were lost. While I may live half a country away, I haven't forgotten and won't. For me, such books aren't escapist fun reads anymore as they have become all too real. That certainly is not intended, or to be taken as, a criticism of the author or his book. The story is well written with numerous subplots and multiple characters. The novel is very well paced and incredibly realistic. Taken for what is, it is good stuff and for those so inclined, I highly recommend this book. My comment is solely a reflection of how my personal reading tastes have changed and is something I was not really aware of until reading this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointed
Review: Not a bad book, just not what I was expecting given the other reviews. I was hopeing for less action and more insight into the "killer virus". Could have used a more medical twist.
Rating:
Summary: Eerily prophetic and wildly entertaining
Review: Super-terrorism conjures super images of airplanes slamming into skyscrapers and streams of dust-covered refugees fleeing distant cities burning.
But the opposite scenario is equally possible - that a deadly global menace could hatch quietly in a tranquil, out-of-the-way town.
Such is the premise of Earl Merkel's novel "Final Epidemic," in which a terrorist organization launches an insidious biological attack on mankind - with Fort Walton Beach, Fla., as the new Ground Zero.
"Final Epidemic" serves an eerily prophetic vision of what could happen in a world bristling with suicidal terrorist threats aimed at the only remaining superpower.
An 8-year-old girl returning from a visit with her Air Force father in Japan unwit-tingly brings a pox upon Northwest Florida - a deadly virus that has been genetically amplified to overwhelm the body's defenses.
The virus was recovered from bodies locked in the permafrost of a remote Siberian island, victims of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that killed millions of people world-wide.
The influenza first appears in Fort Walton Beach when a clinic is overwhelmed by sick and dying vacationers. Soon, personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are recommending that Northwest Florida be quarantined.
An identical outbreak in Moscow prompts Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to contemplate the nerve gassing of tens of thousands of Muscovites to control the bug's spread.
Meanwhile, Dr. Beck Casey, currently a visiting academic at the University of Chi-cago, is called upon by the government to track down the perpetrators of this potentially world-ending peril.
Casey is a former CIA field agent who left the service after being captured and tor-tured by the Russian Mafia. He's an expert on biological warfare and its effects on the civilian sector - but after his experiences in the former Soviet Union he's none to anx-ious to get back in the saddle, especially after learning that his 15-year-old daughter has gone missing in the flu zone, and his ex-wife has vanished trying to find her.
"Final Epidemic" carries the reader on a dizzying global jaunt, from the creepy inner sanctum of the KGB to the back rooms of the White House and a forbidden compound of the Aum Asahara sect in Japan.
It is the Aum, authors of the deadly Tokyo subway nerve gas attack of 1995, who are being blamed for this final epidemic. But are they the real villains?
The book also explores the dark world of American militia organizations and the backstage machinations of the federal government; a cynic might not be able to tell one from the other.
A great deal of the book takes place in Northwest Florida. Beachgoers on Okaloosa Island ponder the strange illness that has ruined their vacation to the Emerald Coast. Fort Walton Beach High School becomes a triage site. Eglin Air Force Base is closed to the public and nobody knows what's happening behind the gates.
Eventually, all of Northwest Florida is cordoned off from the outside world, an experience reminiscent of 1995 and the aftermath of Hurricane Opal.
Merkel is an ink-stained wretch from the newspaper trade and his skills as an inter-viewer and researcher plainly show in "Final Epidemic." The book is extraordinarily well researched and many of its references either actually exist, have recently taken place or are about to happen.
For example, the book posits that a statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the man who in the 1920s organized the Soviet Union's dreaded secret police force the Cheka, would be restored to its place of honor in Moscow's Lubyanka Square outside KGB headquarters after mobs tore it down in 1991. In fact, Russians are talking about doing exactly that.
But it is Merkel's skills as a writer that add dimension to the story. His prose is neither threadbare nor overwrought, the characters are living, breathing people, and the book makes intelligent statements about life and the world.
Readers who don't usually read contemporary thrillers will enjoy seeing Northwest Florida figure so prominently in a book issued by one of the largest publishers in the United States.
But chances are "Final Epidemic" will beguile even non-fans. Merkel has taken the best qualities of authors like Robin Cook, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum and synthe-sized the mix into a book that has the taut pacing, accessible characters and page-turning quotient of a best seller.
"Final Epidemic" offers a scary glimpse behind today's headlines about West Nile, anthrax and terrorism. And something else to remember:
Flu season is almost upon us.
Rating:
Summary: What a sleeper!
Review: Talk about information overload.. this book could have been half its length. The plot is great; people start experiencing flu-like symptoms but unlike the flu they convulse, bleed out and die. Beck Casey, the central character, is called on by the President to help deal with the unprecedented emergency. The virus, much like the Spanish Flu, has hit Florida and Moscow. Russian President Putin orders the gassing of people in his affected area. The death toll will be in the hundreds of thousands. I read so many positive reviews for this book so I was pretty disappointed when I read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Long and drawn out.
Review: Talk about information overload.. this book could have been half its length. The plot is great; people start experiencing flu-like symptoms but unlike the flu they convulse, bleed out and die. Beck Casey, the central character, is called on by the President to help deal with the unprecedented emergency. The virus, much like the Spanish Flu, has hit Florida and Moscow. Russian President Putin orders the gassing of people in his affected area. The death toll will be in the hundreds of thousands. I read so many positive reviews for this book so I was pretty disappointed when I read it.
Rating:
Summary: A complete waste of time
Review: The book's premise, while interesting, failed to come to fruition. There were too many contradictions, too many characters and subplots that were introduced and then never seemed to go anywhere; they disappeared or were simply explained away by some glib twist. The ending was incredibly pat...sort of in the order of, "Wow, how amazing. The situation is magically resolved, and Beck is once again a hero." The writing style was sophomoric, the dialogue stilted, and the structure disorganized. I found it to be an unsatisfying waster of time.
Rating:
Summary: "A Thrilling Story"
Review: The premise of "Final Epidemic," by Earl Merkel is one in which a terrorist organization launches a treacherous biological attack on mankind. Mr. Merkel's characters are believable, the dialogue thrilling, and the plot exciting. A very appealing combination. John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures Inc.
Rating:
Summary: "A Thrilling Story"
Review: The premise of "Final Epidemic," by Earl Merkel is one in which a terrorist organization launches a treacherous biological attack on mankind. Mr. Merkel's characters are believable, the dialogue thrilling, and the plot exciting. A very appealing combination. John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures Inc.
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