Plunder is a kind of crossover between Indiana Jones and Cornwell's Scarpetta. A kind of medical thriller combined with an adventure novel.

The first couple of chapters I had some difficulty getting into the story, but after a while I got sucked into the narrative.
Brett Carson is a doctor with the CDC who gets sent to Guatamala to investigate a couple of very sudden deaths that seem to point at the appearance of a new, very lethal, virus or bacteria.
This is the start of a lot of suspenseful events that will send him chasing archaeologists and monks through al couple of states and country's, accompanied by his newly adopted dog, Tequila.

Plunder is a fast-paced thriller I would recommend for a light read during your holiday.

I want to thank Netgalley for prividing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

When we first read Plunder, Dr. Brett Carson has just come off the plane from helping a young boy gain his vision back from a disease. The book was something that I had originally been very interested in, which is one of the reasons why I requested it on NetGalley, however, as we got deeper into the book, I found it not surprising while reading it, finding some parts rather... Predictable.

I did not finish Plunder, finding many things lacking and stopping at 64% after finding this lacking a few things that had originally made me interested. The plot in the beginning with this disease that has surfaced was quite interesting but as we continued on, it felt boring and just something that I started to lose interest in.

While this is an ARC and I don't expect final formatting to be entirely accurate, there were some grammatical areas like when they were speaking Spanish that seemed like something that should be a focus on especially if it is not your first language. This was shown clear when there were parts where "girl" which is usually "Niña" in Spanish, was translated as "Niño" which is "boy" in Spanish. Such simple words should have been correct from the start. And while my Spanish is not strong, I do know the basics enough see mistakes throughout the book. I was willing to overlook this fact if it had happened at least twice, but it just started to become frequent and I could not move past the numerous mistakes.

Overall, I had high hopes for this. Reading this during COVID-19, I thought it would be interesting to pick something like this up. It saddens me that this did not peak my interest and that I had to stop this book.

I have struggled to finish books this year, but surprised myself by getting to the end of this one - in spite of finding the male lead unpleasant! I also guessed the cause of the illness from a crime book I read a few years ago. The book was well written, without too many leaps of faith - worth a go.

this was a great mystery thriller, it had a great suspenseful atmosphere that I wanted from this type of book. The plot was fun and interesting.

Plunder is a timely, (I am reading this during the second Covid-19 lock-down in Europe) well written and enjoyable book. A lethal virus pops up in remote Guatemala and the hero, a CDC investigator, heads off to the steaming jungles in the midst of the wet season to investigate. The same virus mysteriously pops up in a monastery in the US. How, if at all, are the outbreaks connected?
Although there are many novels in this genre, I found Plunder to be exceptional as it brings the activities of the CDC to life in a real way. The characters and settings are very believable and, as the author has an in-depth knowledge of the subject matter, the reader can relax and enjoy the journey without being constantly distracted by 'fake facts' or errors.
The characters are decent, likable with a mixture of good traits and flaws which makes them believable and keeps the reader guessing to the end who the baddie actually is.
I enjoyed the settings as well, the descriptions of wet, steamy Guatemala and its dicey Government forces contrast nicely with the dry US SW desert and the equally suspicious monks.
Do yourself a favor and read Plunder, even though it deals with a serious subject matter, you will find it entertaining, fascinating and hard to put down.

I completely enjoyed Plunder : A Brett Carson Thriller by Keith Wilson. I read it over a 2 day period and only rarely putting it down. I thank Netgalley and BooksGoSocial for the privilege of reading Plunder . The book is now available as both Kindle and paperback editions.

I was at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) for 30 years before I retired and his descriptions of the public health agency seemed very authentic. Although I should add that I was in the laboratory area with very few interactions with the part of CDC (EIS) that features in this book.

The work of the CDC in preventing the spread of disease and preventing pandemics is extremely important. It did make me think about the current situation with COVID-19 and the failures of the Trump administration in preventing the spread of this pandemic in the United States. If the CDC was given a larger role many of the problems could have been minimized. So much for my editorial comment and back to the book.

The story was great. The characters well developed. The scientific and medical issues explained clearly and in a way that shows their importance. I highly recommend Plunder : A Brett Carson Thriller both because of the thriller aspects which are well done and the relevance to current events.

Plunder by Keith Wilson – 5 Stars
Publisher: Books Go Social
ISBN: 9781951188047

We both enjoyed this uncomplicated, but intriguing, educational, adventurous, and totally entertaining novel. Brett, A CDC doctor gets involved with a virus in Guatemala that migrates elsewhere in an unknown way. He commits himself (I heard the Indiana Jones theme song in my mind continuously) to determining the type of virus, it’s origin, how it spread, and where it spread. He is relentless to the point that he ignores CDC limitations and guidelines given the immediate resolution required. His actions include break-ins, crimes against the Guatemalan government who were fighting the rebels wanting to takeover, armed involvement and alleged murder, assaulting Monks, etc. at the least. And, when there is a beautiful damsel in distress involved, it’s much easier to do. Did I mention the absolutely wonderful and heroic stray dog he takes in called Tequila? His exploits mainly happen in Guatemala, New Mexico, and Chicago where the villain, Scar, is out to kill Kari, the damsel in distress. Who is backing Scar? Who is funding the underlining revolt? How is the Guatemalan government involved? Read and find out yourself why everyone is out to get Kari? You’ll enjoy the adventure and gain a lot of education re viruses and vaccines which are factual and very appropriate during this 2020 COVID-19 virus event.


Reviewer: Rich & Nancy

Rounded up to 2.5 stars.

TRIGGER WARNING: graphic descriptions of medical issues, disease epidemic, gore, murder, attempted rape, mention of rape, kidnapping

The story starts out really interestingly. It follows CDC doctor Brett Carson as he travels around trying to gather information about a new and lethal disease, found deep in the jungles of Guatemala. He encounters an intriguing archaeologist and his gorgeous daughter. But from nearly the moment he arrives in Guatemala, things don't go as planned. There are multiple storylines throughout the book, but they all relate and converge into one at the end of the book.

I loved the amount of action and I was hooked early on. I knew that even though the story took place in various locations, everything would end up tying in at some point, and I wasn't wrong. It made the story a bit more predictable though, so I was not as surprised by many of the plot twists as I was expecting to be.

Generally, the books I receive through NetGalley are ARCs, and I'm able to forgive the formatting and editing issues that I encounter. However, this book was one that was published in April of 2020, so I was surprised at how many spelling and grammar errors I noticed, which I found to be a major distraction, along with the formatting issues. There would be half a sentence cut off, with the next sentence continuing on, and the rest of the cut off sentence would be found lower in the paragraph.

Since a lot of the book took place in Guatemala, there was a lot of Spanish included in the text. Unfortunately, it seemed as though the author just used an online translation rather than actually asking someone who speaks Spanish fluently. I have a fairly good understanding of Spanish language, and while I'm not totally fluent, I was able to pick up quite a few major problems. Some examples include people who live in Guatemala and speak Spanish as a first language would not say things like:

"Are there any el tesoro..." which translates to "Are there any the treasure..."

or calling a girl they view as a daughter a "niño" which means "boy."

If it only happened once or twice, I probably wouldn't have been bothered by it, but it happened far too often to overlook, and it definitely affected my rating.

In addition to the action/thriller/medical mystery part of the story, there was also a romance that superseded all the other aspects of the story, which I didn't expect. I knew there was a romance involved, but I didn't think it was the main focus of the story. Once the romance got going, it was kind of like all the other parts of the story fell to the wayside. The romance wasn't bad, but the sex scenes weren't very sexy - it was definitely a case of "men writing women," with *very sexy scenes* that were redundant and written like this:

"He stood, pulled her to him, and kissed her with a passionate kiss. He kissed her neck, softly pushed her hair from her face, then kissed her neck."

"'Oh ... wait,' she whispered, but her body said otherwise. She made no move to stop him and pushed her pelvis toward him."

"Her pelvis gently pushed against him in a very seductive way as she leaned over and kissed his chest."

I would have preferred to see a scene that included consent, or one where he respected her consent. I was also confused at the repeated use of the word "pelvis" in sex scenes, since it's such a medical term and not really a term that's sexy or commonly found in erotic scenes. I found it really difficult to get absorbed in these scenes or even find them sexy.

I probably would have rated this book higher if it had been edited better, and if the Spanish was checked for accuracy. The story was interesting, but all the other issues were distracting and consistently took me out of the story.

This is fast action page turning thrill ride that has so many twists and turns that you can almost get whiplash. A true who dunnit where reason and ideologies are a main stay of the story line Nothing is as it seems Yes the bad guys have some redeeming qualities and the good guys make some borderline decisions but isn't that how life really is. A thrilling book that had me turning pages as fast as i could