13 Days to Die is a great summer thriller of a book - the action is crisp, the characters are just deep enough to be interesting without requiring the reader to ponder their motivations beyond what's on the page, the science and thrills are plausible enough to send just the right amount of chill down your spine. This is a book I would recommend to fans of Clancy or Crichton for a nice step into something familiar.

Matt Miksa has impeccable credentials behind the writing of a novel that will take what the author describes as a frightening scenario as the truth. That makes a well done story a reason to really worry about where U.S. - China relations are actually at. The author spent time as an FBI intelligence analyst, holds a graduate degree in China studies from Columbia University, and lived in Bejing. He currently lives in the U.S. and will possibly surely dedicate more time to writing both fiction and fact.
A grave virus appears in China and is the killer of thousands of people. What it is and where did it emanate from are the questions posed by the world. Deaths appear to have begun in a remote Tibetan village and officials in the United States decide to send a spy to the area on a fact finding mission. Olen Grave a U.S. Intelligence officer is chosen and travels to the area in the guise of a reporter. Once there he is met by Dr. Zhou Weilin a leading virologist for the Chinese government and head of the research team for them who begins to chaperone Olen around the area. Both immediately begin to share an attraction for each other. Zhou was married to another virologist but currently is estranged from her husband and is open to this affair.
Mr. Miksa presents a lot of data in presenting his story and that aspect is the only thing I find distracting. China is engaged with Taiwan in attempting to get them to come under Chinese rule again which interjects a point of conflict which doesn't seem to be entirely Germain to this story. What is important is the finding of the first individual stricken with the virus . Facts seem to point that he or she deliberately infected themselves, and the emphasize is than on finding out who did patient zero work for.
After a description of what the author describes as the actual history of Chinese worldwide aims and not those described in the history books, we are left with the real powers that be in both China and the U.S. gearing up for plenty of action vs a vis each other. Undoubtedly Zhou and Olen will take part in Mr. Miksa's plans for the novels he writes about the conflict. These should certainly be interesting both as novels and also what just may be the truth about what is going on.

13 Days to Die by Matt Miksa is a superb and engrossing read which will keep you reading until the end. Well worth the read!

It was interesting to stumble upon an advertisement on Facebook for this book written by someone who is a former FBI intelligence agent. That had me intrigued. So of course I flew to Netgalley to see if the book was on here to request. So glad I was approved. This book is believable, scary because of the events and chilling as hell. It was suspenseful and had so many twists and turns and so much action. And the corrupt people were off the charts.

I truly hope Matt Miksa writes more books as good as this one because I read them all. A new favorite author! Highly recommended.

All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, Matt Miksa and Crocked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 3/9/21

Wow where do I start with { 13 Days to Die}, well it's definitely a thriller pack with action, secrets, lies, betrayal. I enjoy reading this book at times it was hard though because reading and living in amidst of a real PAMDEMIC. In the book Blood River Virus was wow very dangerous. Olen and Jo was my favorite characters I want them together, that Marc and Huang. Really surprise me and the ending was OMG I have already recommended to two friends when book comes out in two months and yes I would definitely read more from Author Matt Miksa.

The research behind this book must have been incredible because there is so much detail which really makes the story and its characters jump out of the page. At times a bit complicated, this political thriller spans continents and definitely kept me engaged! All too credible, the plot did leave a couple of things hanging but maybe that is a line up for another book - which would be on my reading list, for sure!

13 Days to Die is a nonstop page turner! Lots of twists and turns, keeps you constantly guessing! An edge of your seat thriller! I highly recommend this 5 star book.

A man walked out of a forest in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. He is sick, and he gets worse with every step. He buried something in the dirt, knowing that he could not be saved. He found his way into a teahouse in town, unleashing his illness on the world. But, what was buried, and was he really just a civilian?

As the illness spreads, VECTOR director Allyson Cameron sends Olen Grave on a mission. He is to assess the threat of a new virus that is spreading quickly through China. Olen is not the first American to investigate, though. Agent Marc Chen has been missing for a week.

Dr Zhou Weilin is working in China to learn what the virus is and how to stop it. She finds herself being shadowed by an American journalist trying to share this story with the world.

Can the virus be stopped? Where did it come from?

13 Days to Die is fast paced and action packed. It starts in overdrive and never slows down. This is Matt Miksa's first novel, and I am excited to see what he brings us next.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it is certainly a timely book since we are all experiencing the COVID-19 crisis. Are some of the scenes over the top and maybe unbelievable? Yes. However, the author puts a lot of detail and knowledge into this book and I think it works! Looking forward to the next one by Matt!

Sometimes, I don't mind if a book doesn't quite know what it wants to be when it grows up.

This is not one of those times.

13 Days to Die spreads itself across several genres - thriller (political, medical), mystery (hunting an ID to attach to a person), flat out political commentary, conspiracy theories, etc.

The basics: a man comes out of the forest in Tibet, looking like Patient Zero of a new bug that could easily become a pandemic, which will look pretty familiar to anyone living through 2020. An American intel officer impersonating a journalist, Olen Grave, is sent off to investigate this, and teams up with a Chinese medical doctor, Dr. Zhou, also investigating it.

It doesn't spoil anything to say that Patient Zero is not just some random dude, but is more than he seems to be. Grave (it isn't necessary to telegraph what's going on by naming someone Grave, author, unless you want to add pulpy fiction to the list of genres) and Zhou get caught up in a (shocker!) conspiracy involving their respective countries. They have to figure out what is going on before the planet gets nuked into oblivion.

There are some unnecessary afterwords about characters at the end, and it's at this point where the train really goes off the rails.

The story is okay, but the book could have been better if it decided whether to go into full-on conspiracy theorist ground.

Two out of five stars.

Thanks to Crooked Lane and NetGalley for the review copy.

13 Days to Die - A political thriller - A lethal virus takes hold in Lhasa, Tibet and Olen Grave, a U.S. intelligence agent, is tasked to work with Dr. Zhou Weilin, a Chinese virus hunter, to try and stop a possible world-wide pandemic from spreading. At every turn they are confronted with new antagonists and new theories as to how and why the virus arrived in Tibet. A non-stop page turner. A thoroughly enjoyable story with a great setup for future books. Just who is the Helmsman and what will happen next!

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC of 13 Days to Die by Matt Miksa. The author seems torn between writing a credible, serious novel about pandemic and corruption, or just going bonkers with absurd plot lines and characters who would be tossed from comic books. 13 Ways to Die is impressive on many fronts. The author at a minimum had to learn a lot of science, history, and geography. He created what was a good plot, but couldn't help himself keep from sabotaging it. Even when the story has essentially ended, there are several vignettes letting us know what happened to the main characters. Yet the vignettes are incendiary, further destroying what credibility preceded them. I suggest that the author tone down the craziness and go for a simpler story. His characters do not need to have bizarre double identities and wacko histories of double dealing. Double identities and double dealing are not the author's forte. I see in this novel the beginnings of a very good novel. Just dim the torches. Get serious. You could double my 2.5 stars if that happens..