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COLD PLAGUE
by Daniel Kalla
Forge, April 2008
335 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0765318334


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Doctor Noah Haldane is called away from his Mexican vacation to tackle an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalitis, or mad cow disease, in France. Representing the World Health Organization, Haldane and fellow researcher Duncan McLeod fly to Limoges, France, where they team up with European Union envoy Elise Renard. With Renard as their guide, Haldane and McLeod search the countryside for clues in the deaths of three patients diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent of the bovine disorder.

What they discover is puzzling, if not downright contradictory in terms of the usual progression of the disease. Haldane's suspicions regarding the source of the outbreak increase when he links a French geologist to all of the known victims.

Meanwhile, a pristine lake has been discovered deep under the ice of Antarctica. Water from the lake is now being drained for bottling by a Russian company that plans to sell it at astronomical prices in fancy boutiques across the world. The first batch of water is on its way to the stores when people start dying of mad cow disease in France.

At the same time all this is happening, people are disappearing from the area around Limoges. Detective Avril Avars is first assigned to the missing persons cases, then is given a second task involving Haldane and his cohorts. Haldane is convinced someone is interfering with the WHO investigation. Avril reacts coolly to the suggestion, but for good reason. Powerful people are running the show in Limoges, and they’ll brook no interference from either the police or WHO.

With the deck stacked against him and the clock ticking down on a worldwide disaster, Haldane must rely on his instincts to ferret out the truth. The question is, will he live to win the battle, or fall prey to an enemy even deadlier than the dreaded mad cow disease?

Daniel Kalla has taken two scientific facts and intertwined them to form a story scarier than any found on a newspaper's front page. This is not the stuff of science fiction. This is, instead, reality with a twist, a preview of events all too possible given the economic climate of today.

Whereas the horrors unleashed in Jurassic Park were due to one man's need to play God, Kalla's fictional disaster is based upon his characters' utter lack of godliness. Corporate and individual greed rules the desires of Haldane's opponents. Science has little recourse against the power that comes with great wealth. Thus Kalla's protagonist must rely on knowledge, instinct, and a bit of good luck to win the day.

Haldane's success is not unbelievable, however. Kalla's strength as a writer lies in giving himself loopholes through which to escape criticism. It would ruin the ending of the book to give away the loophole Kalla uses in COLD PLAGUE. Suffice it to say, the resolution respects both science and the characters' abilities and knowledge. If there's anything confusing in this book, it's the constant jumping between past and present that takes place in alternating chapters. This reviewer would have appreciated a smoother transition in timing, along with fewer comments by the author on the state of the hero's stomach.

Those are small reservations, though. What I did appreciate, as should other readers, is a gripping story that left me wanting to read more from Kalla. If you relish scary stories that leave you with goosebumps, this one's definitely for you.

Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, June 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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