Riaz’s provocatively titled fiction debut makes an urgent viral thriller from contemporary life, as Dr. Harrison Boyd and the team at the small biotechnology company Riogenrix find themselves on the cusp of a world-changing triumph. As a global pandemic rages on, Riogenrix is ready to go to phase three of trials on a vaccine that Boyd knows works, all as so many other companies have failed to create. All Riogenrix needs is FDA approval, but to everyone’s shock it’s denied, possibly at the behest of a senator who’s bucking for the White House and exerts outsize influence … and who eventually asks Boyd to accompany him on a trip to a military research station, where Boyd will face dark secrets about the pandemic’s origins—and about his own government’s plans.

Setting The Vaccine apart is Riaz’s command of science, the process of getting approval, the funding of research, and other crucial elements, which he brings to persuasive life. Also arresting: the characterization of Jasmine and Sofia, Boyd’s wife and daughter, whose lives have been upended by a pandemic that prompted harsher shutdown protocols than the U.S. experienced during Covid-19. Jasmine’s discovery that her husband has access to a (purportedly) effective vaccine but has not given it to their daughter results in strong, suspenseful conflict.

That’s a refreshingly humane conflict. While Riaz’s story builds to some big twists, revelations, and bursts of action, its heart is in characters like Boyd, striving to do what’s best— to save the health of billions, or to protect their own families. An atmosphere of queasy anxiety suffuses the tale, exemplified by scenes where a neighbor of the Boyd family, health failing due to the protracted pandemic shutdown, watches Jasmine and Sofia, and then discovers someone else is doing the same. Riaz offers smart thriller chills and a satisfying ending, but it’s in its thoughtful depiction of people and their lives and choices that The Vaccine gets under the skin.

Takeaway: A smart, humane thriller about a scientist’s efforts to stop a global pandemic.

Great for fans of: Daniel Kalla’s Lost Immunity, Paul John Scott’s Malcharist.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-