DEADLY PASSAGE by Lawrence W. Gold, M.D.

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attention: there is some colorful language (very little) that may be offensive to some readers

A High Seas Adventure Thriller

LAWRENCE W. GOLD'S

DEADLY PASSAGE

 Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

(Publilius Syrus)

SUMMARY  (From Goodreads)

Deadly Passage is a multi-layered, high seas, adventure-thriller novel of bioterrorism in a post 9/11 world. The novel operates on several levels not commonly encountered in a high-octane thriller, including insights into the terrorists, their backgrounds, rationale, and subtle conflicts within the communities from which they have been drawn that ultimately condition their decisions and actions. The responses of US governmental agencies mirror these diverse perspectives. Andy Reiss, a physician, Jesse his registered-nurse wife, and Rachel, their barely teenage daughter, head home on their sailboat, Prophecy, after five years at sea touring the world. They thought they’d dealt with every imaginable experience at sea. When Prophecy comes upon a sailboat adrift, they discover two young Americans, a brother and his sister. After bringing them aboard, both break out with a rash that Andy identifies as a deadly virus. Soon it becomes clear that they’ve inadvertently rescued two homegrown terrorists intent on bringing a deadly virus to the Miami area. Soon the disease is full-blown, sealing the fates of the terrorists and all those they encounter. Andy, Jesse, and Rachel must deal with the unwanted guests, their disease, the Cuban Navy, an approaching hurricane, and the U.S. Coast Guard turning them away from safety, operating under the influence of conflicting political and operational motivations in the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, and the oval office. The shocking and unexpected denouements leave us twisting in uncertain winds reminiscent of On the Beach.

Biography::   I was born in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, moved to Queens, and then, as New Yorkers say, we ascended to the Island. After graduating from Valley Stream Central High School, I went to Adelphi, a college then, a university now, and then to medical school in Chicago.  The war in Vietnam interrupted my postgraduate training with a year in Colorado Springs and another as a Battalion Surgeon in Vietnam.  I returned intact in 1968 to complete my training in internal medicine and diseases of the kidney, nephrology. I worked for twenty-three years in Berkeley, California in a hospital-based practice. Served as Chief of Medicine.  My wife Dorlis and I retired in October 1995 and sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge for a life at sea in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Four years later, exhausted from repairing everything on board,  we sold the sailboat and in a year  we bought a Nordic Tug, a trawler. We motored around Florida, the Bahamas, the entire East Coast and completed two 'Circle trips' to Canada and back. I wrote professionally as a physician to inform but rarely to entertain, at least not on purpose. First, Do No Harm published in April 2007. No Cure for Murder in August 2011. For the Love of God in January 2012 and The Sixth Sense July 2012.  In the last two years, I've written three screenplays. I submitted my screenplay, Rage to the 80th Annual Writer's Digest contest and won honorable mention (57 out of 11,000). We live in beautiful Grass Valley with 13 year old Mike and Bennie, a 7 year old purebred  Yorkie.

MY VIEW

The story is one that could actually take place so you get that little bit of scary feeling when you're reading. Andy Reiss, his wife Jesse and daughter, Rachel have cruised Mexico and Central America for a least 5 years.  The ship's name is  Prophecy.  Andy takes them through the Panama Canal, heading for Ft. Myers, Florida so they can finally settle down. Andy knows he needs to get to Florida because the hurricane season starts around the 1st of June. They run into some rough gales and go to a channel near Cuba until the waters settle down. When they left the channel they come across a ship that was destroyed by the storm with   two American teenagers aboard, unconscious and dehydrated.  Andy a doctor brings them on his ship, leaving a note explaining where they are. Andy and Jesse nurse the kids back to health. Two teen agers with two different personalities.  Ryan has a bad attitude, wanting to cause trouble.  His sister, Nicole is quiet and reserved.  Ryan has a fever that keeps rising.  Andy questions him about being exposed to anything. No response.What a shock, when it's learned that the kids are home grown terrorists  with a deadly virus. Andy is fearful for his life and his family. He locks the two terrorists up. Jesse does her best to use precautions to keep from spreading the virus as she cares for them.  Then Ryan somehow, escapes and he tries to make them take him and his sister to Miami.They have plans to expose millions to their deadly virus. I'm afraid the book is so close to reality it isn't funny.  It is frightening to realize that this could happen any minute. One of the sad things is, some of these "home grown terrorists" are children.  Why take children to use as the vessel of evil?  Children should be innocent and happy.  They shouldn't grow up thinking some day they will kill, they will maim,  they will destroy and through it all, they will possibly die. The author wrote a magnificent tale of traveling the high seas, terrorism right next to you, and the violent acts of nature. Just think, some day you may have to fight for your life, the lives of your family against some senseless act of terrorism.  It's frightening. I hope everyone picks up a copy of  DEADLY PASSAGE by Dr. Lawrence W. Gold and reads it, taking in fully the message given.  Life is so precious, but it can be gone in a second, a mere second. I can't say enough about how good this book was and the topic it carried is so, so near to us every minute. 

I received a complimentary copy of DEADLY PASSAGE from the author, Lawrence W. Gold, M.D. for my view of the book. No other compensation took place. I would give this book 5 SOLID STARS. 

 

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