For me, Carol Plum-Ucci is one of the unsung greats of young adult novelists. She excels at creating suspenseful stories with strong characters in New Jersey settings that place whole communities on edge. In many cases, the readers is not always completely sure what has happened since there may or may not be a supernatural aspect to the story.

Her newest novel seems to be drawn from the fears of terrorism that seem to swirl about us at the back of our minds. It all starts when Cora's mother becomes very ill and dies. She has a mysterious background that took her all over the world, but recently she returned home after receiving bad injuries and falling into drug addiction. Her death seems to be due to an aneurism that was accompanied by flu-like symptoms. Cora is left feeling totally alone since she has no other family.

It is through the good-will of a neighboring family that someone notices that she too seems to be ill. Unfortunately, the troubles do not end there as another woman in the neighborhood dies a similar death. It does not take long for it to become clear that there is something amiss in this little town in New Jersey.

At the same time, readers get to join a 16 year old named Shazad Hamdani, growing up in Pakistan. He is actually working for the American government as a virtual spy, who uses his computer skills to draw all sorts of imformation about people of interest in the terrrist community. In fact, he is the first to identify there might be a danger from Red Poison, which is an engineer illness that was set in Colony One in at the end of December. Shazad is also the only one who believes Colony is in America.

In fact, he believes that it is within 3 hours of New York City based on evidence that he has come across, though his American tenders seem to think that might be unlikely.

It is at this time that it is decided that Shazad needs to be brought to America, something that will bring him directly into the horrible things that are happening with the bioterrorist threat as more people in the neighborhood, including Cora become sick. The question is whether a solution can be found before more people die.

The novel is masterfully crafted as the story is told from the perspective of five teens. Cora and Shazad provide interesting perspectives as outsiders, while the other three perspectives are those of teens that would be considered more popular. One is a paramedic, who is the first to start making a connection about a possible bio-threat in the neighborhood and its source. Another is a classmate of Cora. The final is a young man who ends up being a classmate of Shazad, whose family also has mysterious ties to terrorism.

Plum-Ucci does a great job of not feeding into stereotypes as she creates her cast of characters, both good and bad. In fact, all of the characters are well-developed, giving them subplots that enrich the tale. This gives it a greater feeling of reality. All of the protagonists' voices are honest and true to their age.