The Eleventh Plague: A Novel of Medical Terror [Hardcover]

John S. Marr (Author), John Baldwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1998

What if the ten plagues from the Book of Exodus were visited on America today? Death stalks the land in this blockbuster thriller, and all that stands between us and a cataclysm of biblical proportions is a maverick virologist and an unlikely team of heroes.

In California, a boy dies from anthrax. In Kentucky, a strange, unstoppable contagion is wiping out stables of thoroughbred horses. Called in to help diagnose these two cases, noted virologist Jack D. Bryne discovers that they share a chilling link: they bear uncanny similarities to the fifth and sixth plagues described in Exodus.

Suddenly, he finds himself on the trail of a morbidly brilliant serial killer -- a man with a dangerously sophisticated knowledge of toxins who is bent on raining down biblical retribution on America. To stop him, Bryne must join forces with an FBI agent, a young religious scholar, and a news magazine reporter. Pooling their talents, they launch an investigation that takes them across the country, deep into the ancient past, to the frontiers of medical science and face-to-face with one of the most unforgettable villains ever created.

The countdown is on, and as the death toll mounts, Bryne must risk everything to stop this crazed killer from unleashing his final, apocalyptic masterpiece -- the eleventh plague.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Epidemiologist Marr and freelancer Baldwin (Ice Pick, 1982) team up to write a gripping (if styleless) suspenser about a mad scientist bringing down upon mankind the ten Biblical plagues of Exodus, plus one more for good measure. The dramatized plagues include bread-moldderived ergot from the rye fungus, which causes massive itching, cramps, spasms, and gangrene--as well as later centuries' smallpox, leprosy, Black Plague, syphilis, dysentery, TB, typhus, cholera, and AIDS, not to mention Ebola, Lyme, and more. World-class but crazy toxicologist Theodore ``Teddy'' Graham Kameron, abused as a child by his Bible-quoting mother and now led by a toxic Voice that he assumes must be God's, has been busy re-creating and distributing these basic plague cultures, inducing swarms of bees to attack humans, killing youngsters and horses with anthrax, breeding lice, pests, frog poisons, and much else, all in imitation of the wrath of God falling upon mankind (he has also wired himself up to catch the Voice if it comes to him in his sleep). Meanwhile, pitted against Teddy is epidemiological whiz Dr. Jack Brynne, who heads the ProMED computer hotline (quite real) and flies about the planet fighting epidemics. Jack's parents died from exposure to germ-warfare agents during Japanese tests at a WW II POW camp, though underweight Jack himself escaped testing. His busyness troubles his marriage with star-crossed fellow doctor Mia Hart, who dismisses Jack's idea that a Bible nut is at work. But his old lover, investigative TV journalist Vicki Wade, who does a sort of 60 Minutes show, does take him seriously (in every way). Culminating his campaign, Teddy extracts a superpoison from microscopic marine phytoplanktons. Ironically, the poison might also be a powerful new antibiotic--though that's not what Teddy has in mind. Is Manhattan ready for this (seemingly unstoppable) airborne killer? Creepy stuff. Wash your hands thoroughly after reading. (Film rights to Fox 2000; $200,000 ad/promo; radio satellite tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

"A good bio-scare! And THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE is full of information on epidemology, toxicology, and the deadly effects of biota gone wild." -- Kathy Reichs, author of DEJA DEAD

"Germ warfare and bacteriological terrorism ar all facts of life, and the plagues as are threatening to modern man as they were to Pharaoh. THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE is extensively researched and accurate, and shows an exhaustive familiarity with man's plagues--both biblical and modern. The style is fast-moving, exciting, and complelling-- and the novel is a must read." -- --Stephen A. Berger, M.D., Director of Geographic Tel

"One of the most frightening aspects of THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE is how quickly Joan Marr and John Baldwin lead you to believe the horrors they envision could so easily occur. The story unfolds in such chilling matter-of-fact tones, crammed with rich scientific detail and intermingled with the grim realities of sickness and death, that soon something as innocent as a sneeze is all that's needed to convince a reader that a plague is close at hand. The dialogue is fast and fluid, the characters are well defined and chiseled with icy realism, and the plot races along at a runaway train pace. It all adds up to one horrific read. So, move over Richard Preston. Step aside Robin Cook. Wait in line Michael Palmer. THE ELEVENTH PLAGUE welcomes in two new members to your terror-hood. Read it and chill." -- --Lorrenzo Carcaterra, author of SLEEPERS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (February 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060187778
• ISBN-13: 978-0060187774
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable reading, but..., July 10, 2000

By 

Mayer Goldberg (Beer Sheva, Negev Israel) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Eleventh Plague (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed the book, primarily because I am interested in the subject matter (cbw) and seek out books on such topics, whether fiction or not. Having said this much in favour of the book, I would like to linger on the book's weaker points.

EDITING/PROSE The book is very poorly edited for language and consistency. As already suggested by some of the other reviewers, date inconsistencies, grammatical and syntactic errors, poor transliteration and translation from Hebrew, and many other slip-ups can be found in abundence. It's difficult to imagine that this book was edited by anyone other than the authors (and authors, quite naturally, become blind to the faults in their own prose). The poor editing is probably a syndrom of the word processing age: Authors generate camera-ready or near camera-ready manuscripts that are printed as-is or subjected to but the most cursory examination.

TECHNICAL ACCURACY At least one of the authors is an M.D. It's therefore amazing and amusing to notice the many technical inaccuracies that exist in the book; Presumably the authors are writing about topics they have some knowledge of, and since these are technical topics one wouldn't really expect an editor to catch on to them. Perhaps books that deal with scientific issues, even if in the form of fiction, should be passed on for technical peer reviewing. The most gross technical error I found in the book was to classify prions as viruses. Prions do not contain genetic material (dna or rna) and are therefore not viruses. I found other slip-ups throughout the book, and once noticed, they do hurt the basic credibility of the authors; After all, this isn't science fiction they're writing about.

Otherwise, the book was interesting and informative. I don't think it qualifies as great literature, but it was fun weekend reading, and I certainly learned a few things from it. I took some notes as I was reading, and this is a nice basis for learning more about the subject. One reference that's mentioned in the book, and that you DON'T want to miss on is ProMED. There really is such a mailing list, and you can search it online...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Modern Day Nightmare, October 28, 2003

By 

A. Vegan (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Eleventh Plague (Mass Market Paperback)

The Eleventh Plague deals with the 10 plagues of Exodus. While visiting a zoo, a young boy finds a water pistol and shoots water at a teen girl then he shoots some water into his mouth. Shortly after, both die of a disease thought to be nonexistent in the United States. In Kentucky, thoroughbreds at the Churchill Downs are dying of a virus that cannot be identified, even by the most expert veterinarians. Called in to help is famed virologist Jack Bryne. He soon discovers that the two events are not only connected, they are deliberate acts. Soon Bryne's worldwide medical computer network ProMED is hacked into by the person who is responsible for the recent outbreaks. This unknown person has very dangerous knowledge of toxins and an obsession with biblical retribution. Bryne, now a suspect, must convince the FBI of his innocence and plead with them to help him catch this madman before it's too late.
I've read a lot of books that deal with biological warfare/terrorism and this book has to be one of the best. The Cobra Event by Richard Preston was my favorite but The Eleventh Plague is 10 times better.
Don't read this book when you're eating or about to eat. Some sections of the book were so vivid and repulsive that I thought I would be sick.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A for subject matter-F for writing/editing, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Eleventh Plague (Mass Market Paperback)

Interesting subject matter but the many editorial/writing flaws in the book kept detracting from the story. I got worried when there was a date/time error in the first few pages of the book and the problem continued throughout. I don't mind flashbacks to earlier dates if the characters don't know on that earlier date what they had found out 2 weeks later according to the book's timeline.

There was other incorrect information in there such as the young Jewish boy saying he got hooked up to the Library of Congess to search Grateful Med. Grateful Med is provided by the National Library of Medicine. It made me wonder what other errors I wasn't aware of in some of the scientific/technical aspects of the plagues.

Despite my frustration with the authors/editors not catching some of the inconsistencies, I managed to finish the book because the subject matter interested me. However if you want to read books along this subject line, I'd have to recommend "The Hot Zone" or "The Cobra Event", "And the Band Played On" or several other books (some fiction & nonfiction like those mentioned above)before recommending this one. It was a struggle to stick with it even though the characters were fairly well developed and the concept was intriguing.