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BLEAK MIDWINTER by Peter Millar Bloomsbury, January 2002 372 pages $16.95 ISBN: 0747548358 Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Mid-December in Oxford. Daniel Warren, a Californian, is studying for a higher degree in history. He is reading medieval documents from the area and translating the memoir of a priest from Nether Ditchford from the mid 14th century, the time when the Black Death ravaged Europe, killing a third of the inhabitants. The only building left in Nether Ditchford is the church, St. Peter's Alone

A man, brought into John Radcliffe Hospital for observation is seen by interne Dr. Rajiv Mahendra, who recognizes the distinctive buboes of plague on the patient's body. He discusses this case with his friend, Daniel, who convinces Rajiv to let him see the patient. The patient unexpectedly coughs up blood, and Rajiv pushes Daniel out the door telling him to leave immediately.

The reporter from a local newspaper, Theresa (Therry) Moon, waylays Daniel on his way to the locker room, where he is to change into his street clothing, and soon gets the story of the strange patient from him. The patient was a laborer, working on the new housing estate near a strange church, standing all by itself, surrounded by a churchyard full of bodies and fields.

Daniel wonders how long Yersinia pestis can remain viable in the soil, because the church standing in the midst of fields is St. Peter's Alone, which has stood by itself since the mid 14th century, when the village of Nether Ditchford was consumed by plague, as described by Father Gray in his journal.

This should have been an exciting book. Millar has taken a excellent premise and made it into a plodding novel. Rajiv is killed off after giving Daniel the prophylactic shots and pills that will prevent him from getting plague, but he neglects to do the same for himself. There are several sets of mysterious men, but the good guys are not really differentiated from the bad guys. The one REALLY bad guy is a caricature. I usually enjoy medical thrillers. Not this one.