In 1348 the Black Death came to Genova, Italy. A young barber surgeon, Rafael Pasqua, documents the effects of the terrible plague on his community. The epidemic ravaged most of Europe and left its population decimated. It's not been seen again for hundreds of years.
Present day Genoa: A construction worker dies suddenly and had first exhibited the classic symptoms of bubonic plague. Is this Patient Zero in a new outbreak of this dreaded disease? Before long, the city is inundated with more cases including the more lethal form, pneumonic plague. A team from the World Health Organization descends on the city along with Alana Vaughn, an infectious diseases expert with NATO who is summed there by an old paramour. It is indeed Black Death. Is this somehow a reoccurrence of the plague related to an old monastery that was being torn down or is it bioterrorism? The doctors, scientists and epidemiologists are in a race against time as the horrible plague spreads across Italy. NO SPOILERS.
If you know me, you know I absolutely love thrillers that involve some sort of medical condition and I'm totally obsessed with books written about the Black Death. This one did not disappoint and I devoured it in a few hours unable to set it down even for a second. I loved the scientific details and the descriptions in both past and present of how the disease affected the people and the communities in which it occurred. This is a story of disease, yes, but it's also a story about the individuals who travel to all parts of the world to contain and eradicate evolving bio threats. When a disease of this magnitude re-emerges, it can rapidly spread and develop into a pandemic and those infectious disease experts are there to prevent calamity and save lives. I liked the writing, the characters and the story and highly recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is a standalone and not part of any series. I do intend to go search out this author's other books as I enjoyed this one so much.
Genre - medical thriller, epidemiology, Black Death
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