Midnight Plague

Book excerpt: 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.