Spill

Stephen King called SPILL "the debut thriller of the year."  Yellowstone National Park is straining under a drought and the effects of the worst heat wave in history and all park ranger Jack Fairchild wants to do is make it through the weekend without seeing his beloved wilderness go up in flames.  Then, as the park swells to the max with Frontier Days visitors, a tanker carrying a lethal bio-chemical plague virus overturns in a creek, and all hell literally breaks loose.  A genetically engineered form of hemorrhagic fever is soon sweeping through the park, turning human victims into exploding bags of blood and dropping them in their tracks.  Were anyone infected to escape park boundaries, the spread of the disease could put the entire country at risk.  Enter the operatives of PetroDyne, manufacturers of the virus, along with those in government responsible for the clandestine manufacturer of the biochemical plague agent, intent on making sure that no one who has been exposed will escape...or, for that matter, survive.  Jack Fairchild and a small party of those spared the effects of the virus flee into the most remote sections of the park wilderness, pursued by assassins who will stop at nothing to be sure that the spread of the plague is halted, and that, just as importantly, the machinations of PetroDyne and the U.S. government will forever remain unknown.  The deadly cat and mouse game that ensues between survivalist Fairchild and his charges up against heavily armed and equipped killers plowing through the breathtaking landscape makes for timely and utterly compelling reading.  Carl Hiasasen called SPILL "All you could want in a thriller," and Elmore Leonard said, "I loved it: the plot, the people, the prose.  SPILL has everything."  NPR critic Alan Cheuse praised the book, calling it "action on a wide, wide scale," and James W. Hall said "SPILL is a high tension thriller that moves like fire through dry underbrush...all the more shocking because it is utterly convincing."  Released as a feature film, VIRUS, starring ex-footballer Brian Bosworth and produced by Ashok Amritraj (BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE.)  SPILL was reptrinted in British, Dutch, German, and Japanese editions.  lIt is the author's first book, the precursor to the critically acclaimed John Deal series, and a number of works of narrative non-fiction, including LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE and WATER TO THE ANGELS.  SPILL received the Barnes&Noble Discover Great New Writers Award and was widely praised by critics including Tony Hillerman who called it "Grisly, gory, and gripping.  Standiford can WRITE."  Available as an e-book for the first time.