Fiction: Greig Beck's The First Bird

The latest in cryptozoologically-themed fiction is Grieg Beck's The First Bird. It's a lost world thriller which segues into a doomsday disease thriller, and both halves are memorable and scary as hell. It's Beck's best thriller. The lost world section is original and well researched. Even though the laws of physics concerning giant arthropods have not been repealed to my knowledge, Beck makes his creatures so original and so terrifying that even for a nit-picker like me the science recedes into the background. The disease thriller is not quite as original and has a couple of weak spots, I think (I won't go further so as not to spoil the outcome), but it's still freak-out frightening and has a twist you won't see coming. The disease plot, too, shows a great deal of research. Beck's characters are three-dimensional people you can believe in - and fear for. 
When I finally put this one down, I said, "wow." Good work, Mr. Beck.