Black Monday

exhilarating thriller

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 story line 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

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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GOOD START, LOUSY ENDING

Black Monday had a good start.
I was up reading it until very late (actually, very early in the morning). I had to put it down because after a very exciting first part, I saw where this was all going and lost interest.
I managed to finish to book but I was disappointed.
The last part of the book is less than satisfactory and many questions keep open in the air.
In the end, it's just like a movie script: you know the hero will save the world, his family, his country in the nick of time practically all by himself.
The premise was quite interesting, though.
And it would've been a heck of a thriller if it had kept the quality and excitement of the first part.

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Great Topical Subject but NO Substance

The premise of this book was what grabbed my attention. The concept of bringing the world to a standstill through the infection of oil seemed like a brilliant thought. Having read many other infection related books, the different angle here piqued my interest. The story started off well enough, with the seeming random murder of different individuals by a sociopathic individual who changed names and identities regularly.

A prophesy by a previously unknown Imman and the soon-after falling of airplanes from the skies continued to keep me turning pages. The main character, Dr. Gregory Gillette is a devout husband and father who appears to be the only person thinking throughout this story as things break down into stereotypical characters. A general who reveals secrets to a prostitute while unknowingly being filmed, is belligerent towards Gillette and stymies his moves. A neighborhood bully periodically haunts Gillette's neighborhood as society degrades without the flow of goods and services when oil is corrupted.

I would have thought the story would have focused on two obvious areas: the medical aspect of a bug that could eat oil and the characters attempts to find and kill them, or what could have happened when society encounters a loss of oil, but instead it seemed to concentrate on characters and events without much interest.

Gillette works around rules and severe restrictions, almost getting summarily executed at one point, only to find the source of the infection and deduce the plot, but this part of the story could have taken about 100 pages. The rest of the story concentrated on Gillette's travels around various parts of the country and doesn't really disclose anything substantial about the erosion of society except to imply that everything will be chaotic and people will lapse back to feudalism within 50 days.

Week character development, prose that seemed to be generated in brief thought bursts and important discoveries within the storyline reduced to side notes made this a very confusing read. The mastermind behind the events wasn't even a surprise or revelation, just another introduced meaningless character. By and large, if it weren't for one person actually thinking, the world would have been lost even though the evnt was wide-spread and the best scientists and investigators would be working non-stop to find a solution.

Basically a very good concept with poor execution.

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Quick pace Easy Read

I liked this book. His knowlege in the topic leads me to believe he has worked in the field. Great characters, Great Plot.

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