Dangerous work is being done at the Coppelmier Center For Disease Control.  In an underground lab that sits beneath a major American city, three scientists are working on creating the ultimate biological weapon.  That’s definitely not a good thing, especially when you consider that the city in question is Los Angeles and Los Angeles has a history of getting hit by earthquakes.  You would think that Dr. Leo G. Coppelmier would have understood that building his underground bio weapon lab in a place known to randomly and violently shake was a bad idea.  But Dr. Coppelmier is a wealthy genius and he wants to do things his way.

Of course, an earthquake does hit.  And, of course, a really dangerous plague is set free.  Soon, a horrifying creature with claws is killing people all over Los Angeles, removing their heads and their spinal columns and leaving the bodies in the sewers.  (Yuck!)  Could this be related to the earthquake and the mutated virus that was set free as a result?  Of course it does …. but good luck getting the powers-to-be to admit it!  The government would always rather cover up a problem than admit they played a role in creating it.

Reporter Bill Quinn is determined to discover and reveal the truth and he’s got two scientists and his best friend helping him out.  But will he be able to track down and stop the killer before the plague is spread even further?

Published in 1987, Aftershock is a quick and pulpy read, one that feels like a gory throwback to the B-movies of the 50s and 60s, the ones in which some scientist would make the mistake of trying to play God and end up getting transformed into a fly or a member of the Alligator People.  The subtext of those movies always seemed to be that it was dangerous to look for too many answers and that scientists should stop trying to change things just for the sake of changing them.  The subtext of Aftershock is not quite as reactionary, instead it just suggests that it’s dangerous to build a bioweapon lab on the San Andreas fault and I agree with that.  Aftershock is a violent and bloody tale that holds your attention and offers some genuinely frightening imagery.  Reading it today, it’s hard not think about the fact that COVID undoubtedly escaped from a lab as well.  After everything that we, as a society, have been through over the past four years, books about mad scientists and poorly-planned lab schemes hit a little bit differently nowadays.