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Dr Frank Brink abandoned his research on anthrax as a bio-weapon when a fellow scientist, a woman Frank loved, died while experimenting with the deadly organism. Resolved to finding cures for diseases rather than perfecting them as weapons of mass destruction, Frank is in Dakar studying Pasteurella pestis, better known as the plague, when he is forcibly ejected from the country and returned to England under the watchful eye of British MPs. A Captain in the British Armed Forces, Brink is given a new assignment by his boss, Dr Paul Childess, when he arrives at Portsmouth. A French fishing boat has recently arrived in port, its captain young Alix Pilon and its cargo 13 dead French Jews and one dying Frenchman. Alix is a French Resistance leader. She tells Brink how she and other members of her Resistance cell attacked a truck outside the town of Port-en-Bessin in the belief that it was transporting captured comrades. Instead of their friends, the fighters found 13 extremely ill Jews. Alix and her father smuggled the Jews aboard their fishing boat and headed for England. Along the way, Alix’s father fell ill, showing the same symptoms as the sick Jews. Brink recognizes the symptoms as signs of pneumonic plague. When Alix’s father dies in a British Army hospital, she agrees to return to France with Brink and two British commandos. Their job is to find the Germans responsible for experimenting with the deadly Pasteurella pestis and to destroy their germ factory. Back in France, SS Mayor Doktor Wollenstein is furious over the loss of his Jewish 'guinea pigs.' He lies to Kriminalpolizei detective Kirn, telling him that the Jews were infected with typhus. He insists that they be found immediately. Kirn doesn’t believe the German doctor, but he begins his investigation among the sullen and uncooperative residents of Port-en-Bessin. He soon finds the only doctor in the area dead outside his home, then he stumbles across a man and his wife dead in their home. Convinced they all died of the same disease that infected the missing Jews, Kirn digs deeper into the work of Doktor Wollenstein. Wollenstein, meanwhile, is fighting a losing battle with his superiors in Berlin. The German army knows that an invasion of France by the Allies is imminent. Wollenstein has promised to develop a means of dispersing plague germs over England via spray from airplanes, infecting the British army and thus slowing or stopping the invasion. He insists that his plan will work, but he is in competition with another officer who wants to send the plague to Britain via rockets. If Berlin learns of the missing Jews, Wollenstein could be in big trouble. He becomes desperate, pushing his experiments to the limits as he races against time. Unknown to him, Brink and his companions have landed in France and are quickly closing in on him. All this happens as the deadly plague begins to take root in the small town of Port-en-Bessin. MIDNIGHT PLAGUE is a follow-up to Keizer’s debut novel, THE LONGEST NIGHT. An imaginative tale with roots in proven science, MIDNIGHT PLAGUE hints at the Armageddon awaiting us if powerful biological weapons are ever released on the world. It’s no secret that both the Allies and the Axis forces developed anthrax as a weapon of mass destruction during World War II, so it’s not unrealistic to assume they also considered the plague as a possible bio-weapon. It’s also not unrealistic to assume that some scientists suffered from moral qualms when they considered the implications of their work. Keizer explores this gut-wrenching quandary as it affects two characters, Brink and Kirn. Although on opposite sides of the war, both men are basically decent people doing difficult jobs. What draws them together is their opposition to total madness as embodied in the character of Doktor Wollenstein. Crammed with explosive action and non-stop suspense, the novel may be valued more for its thriller value, and its occasional romantic implications, than for the moral dilemma it describes, but few readers will miss the warning inherent in the story. Although set in 1944, the story has much to say about today’s world and the madmen who continue to walk this earth.
Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, October 2006
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