Cold Silence

Africa provides the backdrop for Abel’s exciting third epidemic thriller (after 2015’s Protocol Zero). Dr. Joe Rush, a retired Marine colonel, and his partner, Eddie Nakamura, are providing food to starving people in south Sudan, but their main mission is to look into rumors that an “Islamic splinter group” is concocting a new bioweapon. Joe alters his plans after receiving a distress call from geology professor Lionel Nash, a former soldier of his who’s doing research in Somalia. Lionel tells Joe that he and his colleagues have been stricken with a horrible unknown disease and are being held hostage by a militia leader who will allow only two doctors to come to their assistance. Joe and Eddie arrive at the site in Somalia to find Lionel and company badly disfigured. The stakes rise when Joe learns that similar symptoms have surfaced in the U.S. The essential plot line—a frantic race to stop the bad guys and minimize the body count—is nothing special, but Rush, who remains scarred by the death of his fiancée, is more than a cookie-cutter lead. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (July)