It begins some seven years ago in a Honduran jungle that had recently been ravaged by a hurricane. Amanda Flynn is one of the members of a Red Cross team sent in to assist, but what the team discovers is that all of the survivors have been ravaged by a virus that either kills them or causes them to erupt into murderous behavior. Long story short, there are no survivors for them to help and the Red Cross team befalls the same fate. All, that is, except for Amanda. The CDC quarantines her for months on end, trying to make sense of what happened, but Amanda keeps secret the odd changes that have happened to her since her infection.
She eventually escapes and eludes the government for seven years, until a viral outbreak with violent repercussions occurs in Colorado Springs, causing her to reach out to Dr. Nathan Martin of the CDC, the very man responsible for her "detainment" all of those years ago. At the same time, Dr. Phillip Rucker, an extremely introverted coroner in Colorado Springs, is looking into this same viral outbreak, while Rodney Patton, a local police detective, is working the grand outbreak of violent behavior in his sleepy town.
At the center of everything is a man named Reisch, one who has also been changed by the virus, much like Amanda, but one who uses his powers for evil. He appears to be intentionally spreading a hybrid of the virus first encountered in Honduras, now called EDH1, but to what end? Reisch is desperately searching for Amanda, because she is the only one strong enough to defeat him and his ultimate plan of destruction, as the pair now both have immense telekinetic powers and the ability to read and even destroy the minds of those around them. Soon, the nationwide net to trap Reisch and halt his plan involves not only these characters, but also Amanda's father-in-law, Greg Flynn, who is a retired detective, and his local priest, the now-infected Father John Oliver who is gaining powers of his own. As Reisch attempts to spread the virus and wreak havoc, he is also involved in a much larger plot involving those who would seek the complete undoing of America. It soon becomes a race against time to stop Reisch and his cohorts before it is too late.
Let me first say that I really enjoyed Hybrid's storyline. Although there were a lot of characters to absorb initially and it took me a while to figure out who everyone was, simply because each new chapter seemed to introduce a new set of players, once I got the lineup cemented in my mind, the story really compelled me to read until I was done. The writing is quite good, however the medicine behind it can get a little deep at times. What did disturb me were the typos and such. All throughout the book, the word "later" is spelled "latter" and there were times when an entire word would be simply missing from a sentence or there would be a strange space as if a word should be there, but none was. These may be small things that really only drive the editor in me crazy, but if they hadn't been present, it would have been much nicer and I would have considered the book excellent. All of that being said, if you enjoy thrillers, you should check out Hybrid. I liked the bioterrorist twist to the plotline and I enjoyed the story from start to finish. While it could have had a stronger ending, it wraps up nicely and I would recommend Hybrid to fans of medical thrillers and thrillers, in general.
