Spill

by Les Standiford

A truck carrying a virulent form of hemorrhagic fever, which causes its victims to explode in a shower of blood, overturns on a road within Yellowstone Park, beginning a hellish nightmare in the area, as those who are infected are hunted down by the CIA

326 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Les Standiford is a historian and author and has since 1985 been the Director of the Florida International University Creative Writing Program. Standiford has been awarded the Frank O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Fiction, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and belongs to the Associated Writing Programs, Mystery Writers of America, and the Writers Guild.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently picked up a used copy of this thriller by Les Standiford ( published in 1991), mainly because of the blurb on the cover: "The debut thriller of the year"--Stephen King. It was an enjoyable thriller, a solid 3 stars, but NOT Stephen King. But, on the other hand, it was only 337 pages long. A toxic spill occurs in Yellowstone National Park which causes plague. The government and a big corporation move to contain and cover-up the disaster--no surprise there. Part of the plan is to track down and terminate anyone who was affected, so we have our hero Park Ranger Jack Fairchild leading a group of survivors to try to escape with their lives.
I was expecting more of a "zombie apocalypse" type of story but this was more of a survival in the wilderness story. The corporation sends a maniac mercenary to kill Jack & company and it turns out this guy is an inhuman killing machine. The Predator couldn't stop this guy....sort of a cartoony villain, but, hey, there just may be people like that out there in the world, doing some truly horrendous things...
Interestingly enough, Standiford also writes non-fiction and I see I have another book by the author on the TBR stack of books and it's non-fiction...

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read and enjoyable, but rather forgettable. I feel like the author dabbled with the idea of a zombie-style outbreak, but gave it up, leaving some incidents questionable. The plotline of a chemical spill and resulting cover-up is believable. The characters are complete tropes: sad sack protagonist whose wife just left him, a good woman just looking for someone to love her and the land, a native trying to do right by his people and his land, a drunk/high/horny truck driver, government officials kept in the dark, a rogue government official, and a vet (wait, what?).

[David McGill]

Spill is a biological disaster story from the early 1990s, just before the author wrote his atmospheric Miama noir series about construction worker Johnny Deal. Spill however was made into the film Virus and has pace aplenty with ruthless government coverup and the protagonist in danger as he exposes the bad Montana spill. I wish Deal and the sunnier Miami vibes got to film or better a TV series, but Spill is worth checking out.

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

All too real in our present world.

[Mario Smet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een goed boek. Maar mocht wat meer spanning in zitten.

[Chris Maguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Nothing super spectacular about it. Realistic characters for the most part, plausible plot. I was a little disappointed that what I thought was a zombie outbreak (when Fairchild finds the family of campers and when what's-her-face's horse goes psychotic) never materialized.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh please...a vet? a mountain lion that lives in a large cave? This book is not a story but a fairy tale. Two stars is generous!