Virals by Kathy Reichs

International bestselling mystery thriller writer Kathy Reichs, ventures into the world of young adult fiction with the Virals series.

Virals, book one in the series, revolves around fourteen-year-old Tory Brennen and her friends, who live on Morris Island, a small community off the coast of South Carolina. Tory’s father works at the research facility on Loggerhead where the main action takes place. And kids being kids, they stumble across a grave containing the remains of a missing girl and decide to solve the mystery, no matter the danger. Throw in the mix the rescue of a sick puppy, and you have the backbone of the story.

At first I found it difficult to get going with this book, and that’s unusual for me. But after leaving it for a couple of month’s I decided to give it another try, as I received the next two books in the series as a present. At the end, it left me bemused. Okay, Kathy Reichs has a unique writing style, short, sharp and to the point, but it has more to do with the context of the story itself.

I’d be wrong to say that I didn’t like it—it is Kathy Reichs after all—even though the characters were somewhat unbelievable at times (although I loved Hi!). Tory, on the other hand, came across as mildly overbearing on occasion. I’ve never known a young girl to get her way all the time without too much of an argument or disagreement! But perhaps that’s just me?

The storyline took a good quarter of the book to get moving in my opinion, after the initial struggle however, it eventually settled into quite a good read.

Overall, not the usual Kathy Reichs, and I much prefer her books aimed at the adult market.