Publication Date: June 22, 2023
Tess Oliver’s memory is a killer.
When the lead that could save her law practice is destroyed in a suspicious fire, only her recollection of it remains. Tess can relive memories, but her gift comes at a cost. The last time she used it, she nearly died.
This time, she only takes a peek. A single moment spent in her memory of the defendant’s encoded document gives her a brutal migraine and a phone number.
Luke Broussard answers her call from the wreckage of a downed plane. His charter passenger is dead. A mutated virus seeps from the man’s broken cargo. And when rescuers take Luke to an Atlanta hospital, the virus comes with him.
Tess follows her lead to Luke and finds an instant connection. As they run from a psychopath who’ll stop at nothing to retrieve the document, the city falls apart around them. The code hidden in Tess’s mind may be the only thing that can keep the outbreak contained, but using her gift to decipher it could kill her. If the virus – or whoever engineered it – doesn’t get to her first.
Tess Oliver is trying to keep her law practice afloat, so a tip about a safe deposit box linked to one of her cases is great news.
Although the box yields only a piece of paper with letters and numbers on it, the owner will do anything to get it back, even if it involves eliminating anyone who looked at it. This sets the stage for The Carolina Variant, a multi-faceted thriller by Brooke French.
Oliver isn’t simply an attorney; she possesses a rare gift of an eidetic memory. Utilizing the gift takes an extreme physical toll, but when she realizes a series of numbers at the bottom must be a phone number and then dials it, she puts into motion a series of events leading her to Luke Broussard. The plane he was piloting crashed, leaving him injured and his mysterious passenger dead.
Oliver and Broussard meet in an Atlanta hospital, not realizing a mutated virus was unleashed in the wreckage. Now, as people around them are getting sick, they must put the pieces together before it’s too late. Recreating the contents of the paper might push Oliver past her physical limits.
The Carolina Variant demonstrates a realistic scenario of what can happen when greed overshadows the value of human life.
Brooke French is a recovering lawyer turned writer who lives with her husband and sons between Atlanta and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She spends most of her days gleefully researching and writing about fatal viruses, terrorism, and murder.Â
Brooke is likely on numerous watch lists.
Sounds like the kind of book I just can’t put down.