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Summary
Summary
A heart-pounding tale-part historical suspense, part medical thriller-set in the final months of World War II.
In 2004, Gregg Keizer put an unforgettable new spin on the World War II suspense novel with his debut, The Longest Night . Now, with Midnight Plague , Keizer sets the bar even higher with a fresh and thrilling blend of war and medical suspense.
As the secret countdown to the Normandy invasion gets under way, a fishing boat runs aground on British shores with a hold full of passengers all dead from a mysterious illness. American doctor Frank Brink, who has been working with the British to develop antibiotics in anticipation of a possible Axis biological attack, is summoned to investigate. Interviewing the one surviving member of the crew, a young Frenchwoman who was working with the Resistance, Brink quickly realizes that someone is testing a biological weapon within the French lines. He suspects that it is the pneumonic plague-a horrifying disease with a one-hundred-percent mortality rate.
With the help of Alix, the Frenchwoman, Brink must travel through occupied France to uncover the German laboratory where the disease is being tested. As the days tick down to the planned assault on Normandy, it is critical that he find and stop his German counterpart before he unleashes a biological terror.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
An impressive follow-up to Keizer's debut, The Longest Night, this grandly imagined, character-driven novel of action and intrigue overflows with biological brinksmanship and nerve-jangling suspense. With less than a week before the Allies launch their D-Day armada, Frank Brink, M.D., is working with the British to develop antibiotics against anthrax, which other members of his team plan to use as a biological weapon. Called in to examine the corpses of 13 Jews ferried across the channel by a French fisherman and his petite daughter, Alix Pilon, an unlikely leader in the French Resistance, Brink discovers that they've been purposefully infected with pneumonic plague, one of the world's most virulent diseases. Racing against time, Brink is sent with Alix and two British commandos to find the German lab responsible and destroy it before the invasion is launched. Meanwhile, German mastermind SS Major Doktor Wollenstein has ordered the civilian Kriminalpolizei detective Kirn to find the missing Jews, telling him they are infected with typhus (though Kirn knows otherwise, and that his countrymen are in grave danger). With D-Day fast approaching, Brink finds an entire village already verging on an epidemic, as moral conflicts build tension to a stunning climax in this epic parable on the ethics of war. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
In this clever cross of biothriller and historical espionage novel, a Nazi doctor perfecting an unstoppable airborne strain of plague that may turn the tide of war against the massing Allied invasion loses a truckload of Jewish guinea pigs who are smuggled across the English Channel. Frank Brink, an American doctor who has abandoned a British anthrax project after it killed his best girl--and who now finds himself in the tenuous moral position of seeking a cure to pestilence so that one side may use it against the other--follows a trail of blackened corpses across enemy lines searching for the plague's source in the French countryside. Meanwhile, a German cop looks for the missing Jews. No Eye of the Needle, the action-crammed story's credibility suffers from galloping plot complications, most traceable to the exasperating impetuousness of ingenue freedom-fighter Alix, whose raison d'etre seems to be throwing a spanner in the works at almost every turn. Follett fans may pardon these excesses as the bodies pile up, and the clock ticks down to either D-Day or doomsday. --David Wright Copyright 2005 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Heroic American doctor and plucky French gamine team up to neutralize a Nazi threat in Keizer's follow-up to The Longest Night (2004). It's November 1942. Modest German detective Willi Kirn, stationed in Caen, France, reacts warily to the unannounced arrival of imperious Doktor Wollenstein, an influential member of the SS and a favorite of Himmler. Wollenstein orders Kirn to find a truckload of Jews who have escaped before being transferred to the intended train. No further details are forthcoming, but it's an order that Kirn dare not refuse, let alone question. Unbeknownst to the Germans, the escapees turn up on a small fishing boat off the coast of England. The boat's captain, M. Pilon, has been pressed to undertake the daring mission by his daughter Alix, a dedicated fighter with the French Resistance. Meanwhile, in Dakar, American doctor Frank Brink, an expert in biological warfare, is studying (without government authorization) a small outbreak of a disease with plague-like symptoms. Brink is abruptly arrested and flown to England by his boss, Dr. Paul Childess. Heated words are followed by a frightening revelation: Pilon and all 13 Jewish refugees have perished, their symptoms very similar to those Brink has been studying in Dakar. Alix alone survives and at length recovers. Suspecting that both outbreaks were engineered by the Nazis, the Allies appeal to the experienced Brink to find the lab where the plague is being manufactured. The trail begins with Alix's colleague Clavette, who helped the Jews escape. The SS doctor is at the center of preparations for a devastating biological attack on England, while the detective's inner turmoil may provide the opening Brink needs to succeed. A simplistic plot delivered with race-against-the-clock urgency. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Keizer's (The Longest Night) second thriller deals with the threat of biological warfare on the eve of the Allied invasion of Normandy. Frank Brink, an American doctor in the British service, has been involved in the production of anthrax bacteria. When a female colleague dies as a result of their work, he dedicates himself to finding an antibiotic that will stop not only the spread of anthrax but also a deadly pneumonic plague that the Germans are developing. This dual threat becomes even more real when a boatload of dying Jews washes up on the English coast. The sole survivor leads Brink and his Special Ops watchdog, Juniper Wickens, to France in search of the lab where the Jews were infected and where an SS doctor has both perfected a method to disperse plague bacilli and discovered an antidote to protect German troops. With the imminent invasion in peril and plenty of obstacles in his way, Brink must find and destroy the lab. Dense with incident and sprinkled with authentic historical details, the tightly entwined plot requires attentive reading, particularly during the action-packed conclusion. Forgiving readers will overlook occasionally disjointed prose, stilted language in the midst of action (fingers choking a doctor are bent back "against the metacarpophalangeal joints"), and moments that stretch believability. A discretionary purchase for larger collections where World War II thrillers are in demand.-Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
"Gregg Keizer's Midnight Plague is a fresh and thrilling blend of war and medical suspense. As the secret countdown to D-Day begins, a fishing boat runs aground on British shores with a hold full of passengers dead from a mysterious illness. American doctor Frank Brink, who has been working with the British to develop antibiotics in anticipation of a possible Axis biological attack, is summoned to investigate. Interviewing the only surviving member of the crew - Alix, a young Frenchwoman and member of the Resistance - Brink quickly realizes that someone is testing a dreaded biological weapon within French lines. He suspects that it is the pneumonic plague - a horrifying disease with a one-hundred-percent mortality rate." "With the help of Alix, Brink must infiltrate occupied France to uncover the laboratory where the disease is being tested. As the days tick down to the planned assault on Normandy, it is critical that he find and stop his German counterpart before he unleshes the biological terror upon the invasion force. His mission is to prevent the biological attack if possible, and to steal antidote if necessary."--BOOK JACKET.
