Book Review: The Moses Virus by Jack Hyland

The Moses Virus

By Jack Hyland

Publisher: Taylor Trade

Published: Jan 7, 2014

ISBN: 9781589799080

Amazon Synopsis:

Modern-day Rome: Two American archaeologists suddenly die in an underground passageway in the Roman Forum leading to the buried rooms of Emperor Nero’s Golden Palace. The Italian authorities conclude the deaths were caused by a devastating and highly contagious virus. Tom Stewart, an NYU forensic archaeologist who was present when the deaths occurred, becomes entangled in the race to find the supply of the virus—a race involving many powerful players desperately seeking the deadly contagion. Stewart must find and destroy the virus before others harness its sinister power. The Vatican, foreign groups, the world’s largest genetic seed manufacturer—all have their reasons, and none will stop until they succeed, no matter the cost or risk to millions of people if the virus escapes and causes a pandemic.

My Thoughts:

While on an archaeological dig in Rome, two colleagues of Dr. Tom Stewart die when they enter an underground passageway in the Roman Forum. They die within minutes from contact with a deadly virus. Now 

there are several groups of people who want to get their hands on the virus, and they think that Tom can get it for them, even though the media has said that the deaths occurred from a cave-in.

I liked the protagonist Dr. Tom Stewart. He is an ordinary person placed in extra-ordinary circumstances and he rises to the challenge. I liked that he wasn’t entirely willing to be caught up in this situation but realized that he had to do something about it and so he did.

I thought that this book started out very captivatingly. It had my attention. After that however, it was rather on-again, off-again. Some parts were very interesting, and some parts were not engaging at all. The latter half of the book was more engaging than their first half as most of the action was in the second half of the book.

I thought that it was an interesting step for the company Belagri to be interested in and invest in archaeology given that they were a company involved in genetically modified seed crops. I liked how the author developed that idea into where he went with it in having Bailitz form his deadly plan.

While the storyline itself was interesting, the story dragged too much in places so that I wanted to quit reading. I kept going however, in hopes that it would pick up in the next chapter and because I prefer to finish a book if I can. I gave this book a rating of 2 stars out of 5 because of the interesting plot and it was more engaging towards the latter part of the book.

Thank you to the publisher, Taylor Trade, via NetGalley for providing an advance review copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

Jack Hyland is a founding partner of Media Advisory Partners. In addition to his long career in investment banking, he has served on the board of over a dozen not-for-profits. He is the author of Evangelism’s First Modern Media Star.