Child Zero

A Novel

By: Chris Holm

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

From molecular biologist turned Anthony Award-winning author of The Killing Kind comes a fact-based thriller in the vein of Michael Crichton about our species’ next great existential threat.

It began four years ago with a worldwide uptick of bacterial infections: meningitis in Frankfurt, cholera in Johannesburg, tuberculosis in New Delhi. Although the outbreaks spread aggressively and proved impervious to our drugs of last resort, public health officials initially dismissed them as unrelated.

They were wrong. Antibiotic resistance soon roiled across the globe. Diseases long thought beaten came surging back. The death toll skyrocketed. Then New York City was ravaged by the most heinous act of bioterror the world had ever seen, perpetrated by a new brand of extremist bent on pushing humanity to extinction.

Detective Jacob Gibson, who lost his wife in the 8/17 attack, is home caring for his sick daughter when his partner summons him to a sprawling shantytown in Central Park, the apparent site of a mass murder. Jake is startled to discover that, despite a life of abject squalor, the victims died in perfect health—and his only hope of finding answers is a 12-year-old boy on the run from some very dangerous men.

©2022 Chris Holm (P)2022 Mulholland Books

Critic reviews

"Intense, propulsive, provocative—and shot through with the kind of been-there, done-that authenticity and expertise that makes it really scary.... Highly recommended." (Lee Child, number one New York Times best-selling author of Better Off Dead)

"Child Zero is a tour de force, beautifully written and hauntingly relevant. Chris Holm has given us a powerful and chilling near-future thriller with a breakneck pace in the best tradition of Michael Crichton's novels and Max Brooks' World War Z." (Matthew Quirk, New York Times best-selling author of The 500 and The Night Agent)

“Child Zero is a thriller that truly thrills! With warp-speed pacing and frightening medical details, it offers a terrifying look at a world gone mad and the possible plagues to come.” (Tess Gerritsen, New York Times best-selling author of Listen to Me)

Great potential, poor execution

The premise was great. The characters had depth. The narrative only seemed to scratch the surface. This could be so much better.

Wonderful! Thought provoking.

I found the audiobook gripping, I found myself holding my breath and talking aloud to the narrator. At first I was little out of by the narrators style, but it quickly grew on me and then added to the effect of the writing somehow.

Timely

Perfect and a bit scary read during a pandemic. No wasted words. Only entertaining ones.

By the numbers triller

All the elements of a good thriller. The independent cop, the loyal partner, the noble girlfriend and the corrupt leadership. Good effort but not really memorable.

Interesting enough to finish…

…but there were times when I almost stopped listening. The story is interesting, but the dialog is poorly written, and there’s a lot of it. Robert Petkoff’s performance comes off as robotic, which is unusual since he’s usually excellent. I was happy to finish this one and move on to something else.

Enjoyed the story greatly

Started off a little confusing but ended up coming together in a shocking way. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys a thrilling fast paced story

Child Zero was a great listen

I really enjoyed Child Zero. This book brought thoughts of pandemics and man made bio weapons. We’re living in a situation where many diseases have returned and mutated. Legionnaires disease, Polio, Covid, Monkeypox, etc.
They sayThe Simpsons are prophetic but in all reality we live in a world where people can create anything in a lab and destroy the world

great premise, nothing more

from the premise, I thought I would love this . But there's no character development. lots of random characters. Story uninteresting. First novel I drop.

Misunderstood the type of book

I don’t like science fiction. I gave it a poor review because of it. The ending was hokey regardless

this book is dumb. just plain dumb.

This is the version of a B movie made for tv book. It's a rolling set of cliches, tropes and stereotypes with current topics plugged in like Madlibs. I don't know why I listened to it all. I didn't get any satisfaction from the story or ending. It didn't even read like a guilty pleasure. It read like a book written by Michael Crichton when he was 9 years old.

This book is so dumb, I almost forgot how bad the narration is.

Enjoy.