I could definitely call this one a true page turner. In spite of it being just slightly over 200 pages, I read the entire book in one night. There's a lot to like here, although the book needed to have an editor go over it for some basic grammar flaws, and for some instances of confused tense in the narative. However, setting those problems aside, what you still end up with is a fast paced and highly accurate depiction of a disease becoming a worldwide epidemic. The writer has some good knowledge of the potential of Ebola becoming an airborne pathogen, and in one particular recounting, this medical knowledge often borders on a lecture about the symptoms of the disease. The characters are all realistic and easy to identify with. Even the antagonist Preacher is an accessible and all too human character. But it's the narrative of Moss Valley that really ties all of this story together. Moss has a lot of observations that are bittersweet in being both laughingly funny, and depressingly accurate. What's more, Moss holds out hope for the better part of the story that "surely, things can't get that bad". His denials provide a much stronger sense of realism than if he had embraced the change in the same way that the Preacher does. Instead, Moss smokes and drink his way through denial while the news is constantly updating him on the progress of the disease, and of the government's abject failure to contain the situation. When these views of the world become too bleak, he can only look outside to the growing cult of people who are wanting to be saved from "God's wrath". The ending had some predictable points, given that it is a genre book about a viral outbreak. On the other hand, there were two nice plot twists near the end involving the antagonist that really helped take this story away from being a cliched tale. There's very few cliches or obvious plot devices to be found, and the tension rising in the story is a genuine response to events, so it never feels artificial or contrived.I'd say that for a first novel, this is really damned fine writing that was only in need of an editor for minor flws in grammar. If you can set those minor flaws aside, you're in for one heck of a ride.