The bad guys aimed to spread the long-lost apocalyptic virus that makes human falls into a frenzied madness and attacks one another. Lori’s team begin to work together trying to unfold the incidents at the village, they are in for a scare. It has a sci-fi feel to it and what I enjoy most is the author's imagination weaving the Dyatlov Pass event into the story. It’s up to Definitely-Not-Jason-Bourne protagonist Cameron Becker to hunt it down and figure out who controls it, where it came from, and why it’s in play. His books understandably have a cinematic quality, being fast-paced, suspenseful, and efficiently told.

The entire group dies brutally in a matter of hours, some of whom endure gross physical trauma on their way to the afterlife. Although this is deliberate — Jordan even states in his acknowledgments that “it was never my intention to use this book to critique or comment on real-life events and politics” — it nevertheless feels like a missed opportunity. This book is definitely for action-thriller lovers-- from shootouts in Iraq to close quarter combat in the snowy mountains of Russia, the action never seems to end. Instead, the author chose to create two characters that have fairly simple motivations and they act in accordance with those motivations throughout. The Critical Drinker) weaves military action and a historical event stained with an air of mystery into a well-crafted narrative.I also enjoyed how despite being primarliy focused on action and figuring out the mystery, Jordan made time to explore Okishev and the idea of the world leaving you behind, culturally. Ex-soldier-turned-mercenary Cameron Becker is escorting a Russian businessman named Luka Belikov through Baghdad. The prologue is the retelling of The Dyatlov Pass event from 1959 on Ural Mountain where A Russian team of nine were found dead with immense and inexplicable injuries.

On a much less important note, I liked the division of the book into parts, like a virus replicating. Pretty ballsy move for one of the Internet’s top film critics to put his own work out there, but this isn’t Will Jordan’s first rodeo. Overall an entertaining read, and not a good fit for this specific reader, I’m sure there are plenty of thrill-seeking readers who will love the book.Moreover, it’s a small critique of what is a delightful read that will hopefully be the beginning of an ongoing series of books, and maybe a possible movie adaptation. Through the story you can spot significant changes in motivation and trust between characters, which I think is the level of depth appropriate for this story. Honestly, Dark Harvest gave me a 'lazy Saturday afternoon on the couch watching 90's action movies' sense about it. It also made a pleasant change from serial killers, abusive husbands, revenge plots and locked room mysteries.