Doom Spore — John T. Cullen

Doom Spore is a chilling, thrilling Summer Movie in a Novel â€" in the tradition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other classic science horror tales. Reading one of John T. Cullen's popcorn books is like watching a movie -- get out the popcorn, grab the person next to you or hug your pillow, and prepare to scream. You'll be sleeping with the lights on for quite some time. It all began in little homes in ordinary neighborhoods around San Diego, where a boy named Jimmy Mendez, 9, and his cousin Maribel Walesky, 10, awaited the return of their Merchant Marine dads from the sea. But the things that came home in a dark, battered freighter from Peru were not men. They looked like sailors, but they were silent and empty-eyed, and were not the same dads who had gone to sea. At first, only the children could see this -- and nobody would believe them. Then the dying began -- all over town. Ordinary men, women, and children from all walks of life became fungal zombies who sought to multiply by seducing and clinging to new victims--and they were clever about it, not staggering ghouls, but fiendish infiltrators who might knock on your door any moment, or hide in your garage or bedroom, wating for you... The inhuman forces behind it were well-organized. From a secret airstrip in the Volcan Mountains, in the east county area of San Diego, they flew crop-dusting missions across the city to spread their spores more efficiently. By the time human authorities realized what they were dealing with, it was all but too late. Lt. Linsey Simon, San Diego Harbor Police, and her husband, hard-hitting reporter Jack Simon, followed the baffling, desperate trail to a dangerous lab experiment gone horribly wrong. San Diego, beautiful tourist capital of blue skies and balmy sea breezes, was becoming a colony of the Fifth (Fungal) Kingdom. And then the fungal zombies mutated into even more terrifying, gilled monstrosities walking the spore-covered streets looking for victims…could there be any hope for the human race at all?