Viral

Robin Cook, a New York Times bestselling author, sets this medical thriller during the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking for a bit of ordinary life, Brian Murphy takes his family on a summer trip to Cape Cod, where his wife, Emma, begins to feel unwell with what seems like the flu. The drive home to New York City turns frantic when she starts seizing in the car and they rush toward the nearest hospital.

In intensive care, doctors identify her illness as eastern equine encephalitis, an uncommon and highly lethal disease spread by mosquitoes. She appears to have caught it during the family's evening cookouts. Soon, the couple's young daughter also shows worrying physical and behavioral changes.

Emma's stay in the hospital grows even more troubling when Brian receives an enormous bill filled with excessive charges and vague wording. His health insurer then refuses to pay any of it, pointing to questionable terms in his policy. Brian must choose between caring for his family and debts he has no way of paying. Furious at a system that seems indifferent to people's suffering, he resolves to fight for justice.

To expose the predatory practices hurting his relatives and many others, Brian must examine a corner of the healthcare industry that has drifted far from its original purpose. He has to take on the self-serving executives who profit from people who are sick and unable to protect themselves, and he has to do it before the virus claims more lives.