Cold Storage by David Koepp I was given an advance copy of Cold Storage by David Koepp by NetGalley for review purposes. David Koepp is the screenwriter behind, amongst others, Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man and War of the Worlds so he is no slouch at writing to keep you on the edge of your seat, but this is his first novel. Cold Storage manages the virtually impossible task of being terrifying, romantic and very funny at the same time. I literally couldn't put it down! I am certain that this book will become a best seller and no doubt at some point will be a massively successful film. Huge congratulations Mr Koepp and please could you write more novels? Publication date 19 September 2019 E-book available NOW!

I fell in love with this book from the outset, it’s bit horror-ish, bit fantasy with some humor thrown in and just appealed to me. We start off going to a desert in Australia with agents that have not seen anything like this before and they decide to bury it in cold storage beneath a little used military repository. Some 15 odd years later something goes wrong, very wrong! Lt Colonel Trini Romano and Major Roberto Diaz get sent on a mission with Dr. Hero Martins, a Microbiologist from University of Chicago. She specialises in epidemiological surveillance. They were going to a remote township called Kiwirrkurra in the middle of the Gibson Desert. In 1979, part of the skylab fell outside Esperance. Three days ago, a call came from NASA Space Biosciences Research Branch. A message had come through about six different agencies, that someone was calling from West Australia to say ‘something was coming out of the tank’. ‘There was an extra oxygen tank. This fell on Kiwirrkurra. The caller identified themselves as Enos Namatjira. His uncle had found it five or six years ago and moved it in front of his house, he kept it as a souvenir. But now there was something wrong with it, and he was getting sick. Quickly.’ ‘Since then people have started dying.’ Sixteen years later in 2003, the DTRA decided the mine complex was a Cold War complex that was no longer needed so it was cleared out, cleaned up, given a coat of paint and sold to Smart Warehousing for private use. The self storage company put up some drywall, got 650 locking overhead garage doors and opened it to the public. Teacake managed to get a job working at the storage facility and got nights, Thursday through Sunday. He always tried to get there a bit early at the start of a shift. When he first started a shift, he checked the twelve monitors, to see if anyone was in and what state the place was in. Then a quick glance at the other entrance to see if she had turned up for work, she had, then to work out a way to bump into her. She, Naomi, was on the move with a full bin under her arm. She was heading to the dumpsters. Thanks to Griffin, Teacake had a full bin so he had an excuse to bump into her, so off he went. Naomi had just emptied her bin when Teacake burst into the loading bay, making her jump. They introduced themselves as they hadn’t met before and chatted before Naomi turned to leave before she mentioned that there was a ‘beep’ coming from Teacakes side of the facility. Teacake then realised what the intermittent noise had been that he couldn’t put his finger on. The beep was very faint but there. They got back to Teacakes’ reception desk and listened, the beep was coming from the wall behind the desk. Teacake threw his desk chair at the wall, it went through really easy and made an even bigger hole when he pulled the chair back out. In the hole there was a red flashing light, at eye level, three feet to his left. BEEP. On the concealed interior wall, there were dials and gauges, long out of use and cut off from power which were set in an industrial looking corrugated metal framework unit which was painted in a sickly institutional green used back in the ‘70s. They needed a flashlight to read the writing on the unit. Teacake got himself into the hole and read ‘NTC Thermistor Breach, Sub-basement Level Four.’ ‘What the hell is sub basement level four? I thought there was only one.’ They find a schematic which shows SB-2, SB-3 and SB-4, which is where the light is flashing. Also, it shows what appears to be a tube ladder allowing access to the lower levels. They just have to find the entrance to it. This is a great story, well written and thought out. I enjoy this type of book as I like horror and fantasy and I certainly don’t read enough of them. I rated this 5 out of 5.

Quirky - almost science fiction David Koepp is perhaps better known for his work as a screenwriter on films such as Jurassic Park and Mission Impossible and, although it's proven that being a successful screenwriter does not automatically translate into being a good author, I, therefore, started to read the novel with a good deal of anticipation and expectation. Despite a slow start, the plot started to grow on me, much like the fungus which is central to the storyline. It's 1987, and Robert Diaz and Trini Romano have been sent by their organisation (Defence Nuclear Agency or DNA for short) to investigate and deal with a biochemical attack which turns out to be a virulent fungus which is intelligent and able to adapt to any new environment. Their successful mission should have been the end of the story but storing hazardous material, no matter how securely, rarely has a good ending. Moving forward to 2019, the fungus has managed to re-emerge, and the only people with any experience and capable of dealing with the problem are called out of retirement. There are certainly shades of Jurassic Park in this thriller, but it makes it no less interesting for that. As a straightforward horror story about how close the world as we know it comes to extinction, the book would have made excellent reading, but the counterpoint of humour injected throughout make it a superb read which is both humorous and terrifying in equal measure. It's a delicate balance to maintain but one which Koepp manages very successfully. It’s a difficult book to classify but, as someone who doesn’t believe in labels, my suggestion is to forget about pigeonholing and to relax and enjoy the ride. It’s a cracker. Mr zorg Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to read.

Fast paced, high octane and so much fun! Could easily have devoured this in one sitting. It's easy to see the author's screenwriting skills, the whole thing was so easy to visualise. There were so many little details that made this special and I loved it!

The novel opens as US government bio terror operative Roberto Diaz and his partner travel to a remote area in Australia. They are there to investigate the possible presence of a bio terror attack. They find instead a highly contagious viral entity that if allowed to spread could very well wipe out the entire population of Earth. The two find the town that has been attacked filled with dead bodies; of people killed by the virus. The virus is contained by the simple expedient of aerial bombing the town and area around it destroying everything. A small portion that survives the destruction is placed in a sealed container, taken back to the U.S. by Roberto and placed in an area that is underground and heavily fortified Years later we get to the "exciting" part of the book. The virus has leaked and is attacking the storage area it is contained in. Two security guards have detected it and called the government agency indicated on an instruction sheet they are told to use if a leak has been detected by an internal guidance system. Roberto Diaz, now retired, is called upon to travel to the site and take any measures necessary to contain it. He does so and in an informal team up with the two security guards takes those measures deemed necessary to destroy the virus. And WOW. "Cold Storage" is the first book published by David Koepp although his background certainly points to his ability to capture and keep his readers. As indicated in a resume of his credentials we learn that he was the screenwriter for "Jurassic Park" That the novel is one that keeps the readers unable to put it down is a fact. I am anxiously awaiting his next book with an eye to being first on line to get it. And-also wondering if the novel will be made into a movie. If so it would be one exciting video experience.