Vaccine: A Terrorism Thriller by Robin Rickards-review & interview

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ABOUT THE BOOK

War kills in many ways—with speed, with brutality…with stealth.

At the end of the 20th century, America prepares for a war that could transform the world. But that war has already been fought. . .and America has lost. In the lingering chaos of the Middle East conflict, a pathogen is unleashed. This plague has been engineered to suffocate its victims with an agonizing, sleepless death and cripple the victor long after the battle has ended.

Darien Rhodes, once an esteemed military physician, is now a disgraced exile. Forced back into service by the army that had betrayed him, he searches for the cure held in the hands of the enemy.

Racing against time, Rhodes faces an unforgiving ultimatum: find the vaccine…or face a trial for treason.

Blackmail, bioterror, deception-an electrifying terrorism thriller that merges the intensity of military and medical suspense. Will America survive this final blow?

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REVIEW:VACCINE: A TERRORISM THRILLER by Robin Rickards is a sci-fi, historical, medical thriller and military drama focusing on former military physician and infectious disease researcher Dr. Darien Rhodes.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives including Dr. Darien Rhodes, following two timelines (1978 and 1998) VACCINE focuses on Dr. Darien Rhodes, a dishonored US military physician and infectious disease researcher as he is tasked with uncovering the truth. In 1977, two years after the end of the Vietnam war, several North and South Vietnamese POWs became sick, and Darien and his team including Dr. Major David Rossi, a US army physician specializing in pathology and neurology, were assigned the difficult task of determining what happened and why but the incipient nature of the disease, and the ongoing research unveiled an unknown and deadly strain of a potentially new virus, a virus that could have been either man-made or unearthed from times past. Finding himself on the wrong side of government bureaucracy, Darien is banished and black listed until twenty years later when New World Minerals, while mining for gold in Vietnam, may have unleashed the same deadly virus.

The world building is complex, detailed, well researched and awash in medical text, language and infectious diseases, concepts, conspiracies, betrayal, blackmail, ethnic cleansing, and bioterrorism enmeshed in a literary mixture of both fiction and reality. From North and Central America, to Vietnam and North Africa, the Gulf War, and the Middle East wars including Iraq and Afghanistan, to Russia, the transient nature of research, power and greed are affecting the people, and soldiers sent to fight a war not of their making.

We are introduced to a questionable cast of secondary and supporting characters: Colonel David Rossi, Army physician specializing in pathology and neurology ; geologists Michel Martin, and his daughter Terry Martin of New World Minerals ; Russian pilot Viktor Merkulov; microbiologist Dr. Zamorin, and geologist Jackson Manning.

VACCINE: A Terrorism Thriller is a suspenseful, well written story of secrets and lies, betrayal and vengeance, greed and madness, war, ethnic cleansing and terrorism, double cross and espionage. The thought provoking, intriguing and comprehensive premise is dramatic, twisted, edgy and well developed; the characters are numerous, animated and tragic.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC:  Hi  Robin  and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the
release of VACCINE-A TERRORISM THRILLER.

We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Robin: I have dual Canadian/British citizen. I was fortunate enough to be born in Canada to two [inspirational] immigrant parents after WWII. I am a [semi-] retired orthopedic surgeon [that means I used to do quite a few hip and knee replacements and deal with a lot of trauma/car accidents].

I am married to a beautiful Colombian lady [who keeps me on my toes]. I speak fluent English [sort of my first language], French and Spanish. I have two terrific adult children and live on the [very wet] west coast of Canada.

TRC:Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Robin:I have always enjoyed thrillers such as those written by Michael Crichton and Robin Cook [both doctors by the way] any book that has a big ‘What If’ component to it intrigues me as do things like alternative histories and stories about hidden/obscure events.

TRC:What challenges or difficulties did you encounter writing and publishing this story?

Robin:Publishing [traditional publishing] seems to be a closed shop. The only traditional publishers who will take a new author on is if that author has already been published [a vicious circle!]. Self-publishing is easy to do not necessarily easy to be successful at. I always say that writing a book is the easy part, marketing the book is the hard part.

And it’s always hard to be objective about what you’ve written. Sometimes you can be writing for hours, look at the words you have put onto paper [or computer, really] and just wonder where they came from-they’re so good!-Or they’re so bad!

TRC : Would you please tell us something about the premise of  VACCINE-A TERRORISM THRILLER?

Robin:I have written five novels. Vaccine was written just after the Gulf War. For anyone who can remember, a lot of the soldiers came back sick, debilitated and there was no explanation for their symptoms [there still isn’t!]. There are a lot of theories but Gulf War Syndrome has never really been explained.

The novel is about that disease but more so, it’s really about deception, conspiracy and who can you trust [?].

TRC: What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend
researching /plotting before beginning VACCINE-A TERRORISM THRILLER?

Robin: I like it when you call it ‘plotting’. It sounds like a conspiracy! I carry extensive research for all of my books before I even start to write. Depending on the subject/theme of the novel, I may spend up to a year before putting pen to paper [finger to computer] and then usually another year before I have a satisfactory final product. But even at that point, it’s not over because an editor [a good one] will point out where the cracks and crevices are in the story, in the characters and whether the whole thing sticks together.

TRC: Is any of the plot based in reality? Inspired by the recent COVID-19
pandemic?

Robin: Now that is a great question! In 2022, I had a literary agent tell me that there was no point in writing a book about a vaccine, since everyone on the planet was already talking about a vaccine [Covid related, I suppose]. The reality is however that I wrote this book over 20 years ago [am I prescient!!?] all about a man-made disease, used as a weapon. So, the answer to the question is: No, it was not inspired by the recent Covid-19 pandemic [and the Covid-19 pandemic was not inspired by my book!].

TRC: Did you consider any of, or take into account, recent conspiracy theories when developing the story line?

Robin: Another great question! Just after the Gulf War there was a lot of talk about chemical and possibly biological weapons having been used. In the media, that was all put off as conspiracy, nothing to back it up!

It is always so difficult to believe what we are hearing today. At that time, a good friend of mine [retired, very high up in the military] had told me that the reality of the situation was that Iraq really did have weapons of mass destruction! I guess you can take what you want from that-it’s all in the past now.

TRC: Believability is an important factor in writing story lines. How do you keep the story line believable? Where do you think some author’s fail?

Robin:I’m not sure what would be the best way to say this. I think that the storyline has to ‘stick’. It has to flow from one event to the next and from one character to the next. I don’t pretend to be the best writer in the world, but I think that many writers will go off on tangents and not focus on the main goal of the story which is to weave a tale that keeps your reader glued to the book. It’s always nice to provide interesting details but only if that pertains to the story or adds to the theme. On the other hand, going off on a tangent can sometimes be useful when the reader realizes that the direction that the reader was taken in brings that reader right back to centre stage.

TRC: Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers
in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Robin:It’s a really old saying-a picture paints 1000 words! When I was trying to conceive of the cover, I would picture myself in a store [in the old days when people would actually go to stores to buy books] and unless I was looking for a specific book or subject, I was always attracted to the book that had the most interesting cover. I think that old saying applies even more when you’re looking for a book online because you can’t feel the book, you can’t hold it in your hands. A good cover draws the reader in just like that tasty worm on the hook will help you catch that big fish.

TRC:When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Robin: The answer to that question is: both. But more so, I find, that the characters, more often than not dictate to me which way to go [I suppose that sounds kind of spooky]. I think that’s probably a good way to write and in a way it goes along with allowing the characters to flow, character with character, character with theme/plot and even character with the author [sound spooky again, I know].

TRC:The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen?  Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Robin:A good character/characters need to have emotions, quirks and especially faults. The writer has to illustrate the characters’ faults. The illustration can be shown by what the characters do, what they think [it’s probably not a good idea to stay in a character’s head for too long, simply recounting what he/she is thinking about]. Better still, your author should show how the character is able to deal with those faults. I think that’s all a reflection of real life. We all have faults and we all have to deal with them.

TRC:Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Robin:No, I can’t listen to music while I’m writing. There’s just too much going on inside my head!

TRC:What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Robin:Most people, as far as I can tell, think that authors live in a dark room with only a thin sliver of natural light penetrating their isolation through a closed blind. Perhaps there are authors like that but I doubt that they can last long without ending up drinking a lot!

TRC:What is something that few, if anyone, know about you?

Robin: I worry a lot. About what? Everything!

TRC:On what are you currently working?

Robin: I am about halfway through another work of fiction-the working title is: Plague Prayers and Oracle Bones. The subject is about human parasites and how they have affected humanity since “the beginning of time”.

As you can see, all my books have some medical basis on which I think [I hope?] add some credence to the subject of each novel.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food
Peanut Butter

Favorite Dessert
Fresh Fruit-but I really do love apple pie!

Favorite TV Show
Ancient Aliens of Course!

Last Movie You Saw
The Queen of the Ring-it’s an Indie movie that just came out, all based on true fact!

Dark or Milk Chocolate
Dark-and Lots of It

Secret Celebrity Crush
Sophia Vergara… They say she looks a lot like my wife!

Last Vacation Destination
Colombia-lots of family down there

Do you have any pets?
We have four dogs and two cats [and sometimes a small weasel]-most are rescues

Last book you read

The Genetic Book of the Dead by Richard Dawkins

TRC:Thank you Robin for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of Vaccine: Terrorism Thriller