Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
24/7 is America's latest reality television show where twelve contestants are flown to the deserted island of Vassa in the Caribbean. Challenges confront each participant and every three days the audience votes on which person is eliminated. The final survivor wins two million dollars and his or her heart's desire. Dana Kirsten, a last minute substitute, wants to win because she has a ten-year-old daughter living on borrowed time with a doomsday clock ticking away if she fails to obtain experimental treatment in Switzerland.
On the first day of the stay at Vassa, the TV people are all killed by a mysterious ailment. A voice calling itself Control informs the contestants that an Ebola-like virus infects them all. On the day that a contestant is scheduled to be eliminated, a temporary antidote will be administered to the survivors. The winner will gain the ultimate prize, his or her life.
This mind-boggling thriller is a technologically aged version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Jim Brown has written a complex fast-paced story line populated by three-dimensional characters. The audience will root for some of the cast members to escape death and will feel sad when many do not. This novel contains more twists and turns than a meandering river or a mountain road.