The Cobra Event

A terrifying fictionalized scenario of a very real threat—biological terrorism—is presented in The Cobra Event.

When Kate Moran, then seventeen, feels the first signs of a cold in the morning, she ignores them and continues with her day at school. Kate's runny nose turns into severe convulsions and a horrifying sight of self-cannibalization by her midmorning painting class. She dies soon after. Pathologist Alice Austen is sent by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to look into the case of a homeless man who meets an equally horrific and mysterious end. What she finds out is the work of a murderer, a guy going by the name Archimedes, who wants to infect New York City with his lethal Cobra virus. A covert FBI forensic team and Austen hurry to reveal the terrorist as a quiet catastrophe breaks out.

But the reality that underlies Preston's tale of the imaginary Cobra virus is far more terrifying. According to the writer's preface, "The nonfiction roots of this book run deep.... My sources include eyewitnesses who have seen a variety of biological-weapons installations in different countries, and people who have developed and tested strategic bioweapons." The Cobra Event was not written as nonfiction for the sole reason that Preston's sources would not be published.

Sections of pure factual reporting that expose the horrifying reality regarding the creation of biological weapons and the covert efforts of Russia and Iraq are interwoven throughout the book. The Cobra Event was the result of three years of investigation and more than 100 interviews with top FBI, US military, and scientific sources. You will be shocked by the outcome.