All Fall Down - Louise Voss & Mark Edwards

We first met talented virologist Dr Kate Maddox in 'Catch Your Death', and two years on from her narrow escape in that book, we meet her again here, now living with her partner Paul and her son Jack in the UK, and hoping for a normal life. However her peace is about to he shattered, as a man connected to that terrible episode from her past appears and informs her of the horrifying news that a suspected new strain of the killer virus that Kate's parents died from is now on the loose in Los Angeles. Then there is worse news as a bomb goes off in a hotel in America killing the top scientists that were meeting there and thereby reducing significantly the chances of a cure to the outbreak being found. 

As one of the leading expert’s in the world on the Watoto virus, Kate is called upon to travel to the USA immediately to a top secret laboratory in California to assist a special team in desperately trying to find a cure for the virus and help to stop it spreading any further. Reluctantly she takes Paul and Jack with her to the US, sending Jack off to stay with his father Vernon, whilst Paul embarks on his own determined if ill-advised pursuit of an enemy from the past, still intent on revenge for the death of his twin-brother.

This is another exciting, scary page-turner from the able pens of crime writers Voss and Edwards; it is packed with action, adventure, intrigue and terror. I was intrigued as to the outcome and liked the way the story moved between the different strands in alternate, short chapters, so that the tension in what was happening to Kate was maintained as we were taken to find out where Paul was, and then on to what was happening with the killers, keeping all parts of the story in play and ratcheting up the interest for the reader.

The threat of the deadly virus escaping into the wider world is ever-present and drives the urgency for Kate to discover a cure, and the authors keep the pace of the story and the action pounding along to reflect this. The truly frightening killers behind this release of the virus are certainly unusual and different to your average crime villain and they have their own strong cult-like beliefs driving their actions, aiming to start the world anew. There were parts of the story where I felt I had to suspend my disbelief a little, or found myself wondering if something would really have happened that way, and I was also a little apprehensive about the violence at times. These are minor quibbles overall though. I think if you’ve enjoyed the previous two novels by this author team then you should definitely read this one too. Although this isn’t my personal favourite novel by them – that would be Killing Cupid – I would still recommend it as a fast and furious thriller with some very unusual killers and a tense, exciting plot throughout. You don’t need to read Catch Your Death before reading All Fall Down, although I would recommend reading CYD simply because it’s a very good read!

Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins

Thanks to the authors and the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and review. 

You can find the authors on twitter @mredwards and @louisevoss1 and visit their facebook page here and their website here. 

You can read my reviews of previous novels Catch Your Death and Killing Cupid by clicking on the book titles.