Marshall Goldberg (1930–2005)

I'm still cataloging lots of my paperbacks and when I ran across this one I knew I wanted to read it sooner than later. Blazed through this tale of a pandemic that started in the US southwest and spread around the country like wildfire while the medical and scientific commmunities searched for the cause, the carrier and a cure. The virus kills 20% of the people it infects and the race is on to try to find a cure before the worst can happen - the collapse of the US as we know it, or being bombed by the rest of the world (our allies even) because they believe they can contain it if they just bomb us all into oblivion. A vaccine is discovered, but it kills 10% of the people and nobody wants to get vaccinated. They need to study the effects of the vaccine to try to make it safer, but with no one wanting to get vaccinated, some interesting questions arise. Written in 1980, it was a bit dated with a lot of sexism, but still good.… (más)

I read this book as an electronic advance reading copy (e-ARC) provided by NetGalley. I have submitted my comments to the publisher via that web site.

This book casts real life individuals, led by investigative journalist Nellie Bly, in a fictional mystery about the death of poet Emma Lazarus, who wrote "The New Colossus," now part of the Statue of Liberty national monument. Nellie Bly sounds like an amazing person--brave, intelligent, empathic, and hard working--and the setting of Gilded Age New York City is as compelling as ever. The plot is a bit weak, and the author's historical details occasionally seem oversimplified. This book is recommended for public libraries.… (más)