Fans of the medical mystery will like this one for its protagonist and the setting. Zol is wonderful and the secrets on the ship- well, no spoilers from me. A good read.

Fast-paced and entertaining epidemiological thriller set aboard a small luxury cruise ship sailing from Australia to ports in southeast Asia through the Indian Ocean and on to South Africa. Crewmen are dying from blood poisoning at an alarming rate and the ship's only physician, Dr. Noah Ferguson, is petrified that there is some type of lethal microbe somewhere on the cruise liner. Fortunately, there is a passenger on board who might have the expertise to find the point source -- once they figure out what the symptoms mean and what organizm they are dealing with. Dr. Zoltan Szabo and his assistant (girlfriend) come to the rescue as they set up a rudimentary lab, investigate, and eventually discover the cause. Dr. Szabo happens to be a specialist in public health. There's also much intrigue aboard the ship and lots of secrets among the officers and crew.

This is the 4th book in the Dr. Zol Szabo medical suspense series and the first one I've read. Despite not knowing the history behind the reasons for this trip he is taking with his son, his son's friend, and his girlfriend, I had no problem and didn't feel that I had missed anything terribly significant that impaired my ability to relate to the characters and the story. I definitely would like to read more books by this author and catch up on the rest of the series. There's nothing I like better than a believable medical thriller. (The only downside for me, and it's definitely personal and minor, is that there was a bit of digression by the author about how great Canada is vs the rest of the world!) Definitely would recommend to anyone who likes a blend of medicine and suspense.

very well written!! Totally my kind of read! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.. I will definitely pass this on and get my friends to read it!!!

Wow. My apologies to the cruise-liner industry, but after this novel I think I'll stick to the skies! What makes this well-written novel so arresting is the thought that it could be well within the realm of possibility these days. The absolute angst of the doctors on board was palpable, and it was easy to imagine the sweat trickling down the Captain's face. I thoroughly enjoyed this venture into the heart-pounding realm of "what if?", and recommend this novel to anyone who doesn't care about sleeping tonight. Excellent job.

Thank you.
Enjoyed it. Good read.
Will get copies for family and friends

4 Stars

Zol Szabo and his co-worker, Natasha Sharma, are on a six week cruise off of Australia. Along with them are Zol’s son, Max, and his friend, Travis.

The ship’s doctor begins to be concerned about a possible outbreak of an unknown pathogen aboard the ship. He enlists Zol and Natasha’s help.

Under rather primitive conditions, by laboratory standards at any rate, they perform some tests on the remains of the victims. Coming up with an unknown pathogen, they need to get to a real lab to forward some findings to their facility back in Canada.

Meanwhile life goes on aboard ship – the captain sees fit to cover up anything that might be unseemly to passengers, and more importantly, to the owner of the ship.

This is an exciting and well written medical thriller. I enjoyed it immensely. This book is a very fine addition to the Dr. Zol Szabo series. It is well written with good, well develop0ed characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for forwarding to me a copy of this very good book to read.