Midnight Plague [Hardcover]

Gregg Keizer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. An impressive follow-up to Keizer's debut, The Longest Night, this grandly imagined, character-driven novel of action and intrigue overflows with biological brinksmanship and nerve-jangling suspense. With less than a week before the Allies launch their D-Day armada, Frank Brink, M.D., is working with the British to develop antibiotics against anthrax, which other members of his team plan to use as a biological weapon. Called in to examine the corpses of 13 Jews ferried across the channel by a French fisherman and his petite daughter, Alix Pilon, an unlikely leader in the French Resistance, Brink discovers that they've been purposefully infected with pneumonic plague, one of the world's most virulent diseases. Racing against time, Brink is sent with Alix and two British commandos to find the German lab responsible and destroy it before the invasion is launched. Meanwhile, German mastermind SS Major Doktor Wollenstein has ordered the civilian Kriminalpolizei detective Kirn to find the missing Jews, telling him they are infected with typhus (though Kirn knows otherwise, and that his countrymen are in grave danger). With D-Day fast approaching, Brink finds an entire village already verging on an epidemic, as moral conflicts build tension to a stunning climax in this epic parable on the ethics of war. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this clever cross of biothriller and historical espionage novel, a Nazi doctor perfecting an unstoppable airborne strain of plague that may turn the tide of war against the massing Allied invasion loses a truckload of Jewish "guinea pigs" who are smuggled across the English Channel. Frank Brink, an American doctor who has abandoned a British anthrax project after it killed his best girl--and who now finds himself in the tenuous moral position of seeking a cure to pestilence so that one side may use it against the other--follows a trail of blackened corpses across enemy lines searching for the plague's source in the French countryside. Meanwhile, a German cop looks for the missing Jews. No Eye of the Needle, the action-crammed story's credibility suffers from galloping plot complications, most traceable to the exasperating impetuousness of ingenue freedom-fighter Alix, whose raison d'etre seems to be throwing a spanner in the works at almost every turn. Follett fans may pardon these excesses as the bodies pile up, and the clock ticks down to either D-Day or doomsday. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (August 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399153195
• ISBN-13: 978-0399153198
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,396,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Biological weapons during World War II., January 8, 2006

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midnight Plague (Hardcover)

What if the Nazis had biological weapons that they were planning to use against the Allies during D-Day? What if the British had their own secret weapon that they were planning to use against the Germans? These and other questions are at the heart of "Midnight Plague," a spy thriller by Gregg Keizer. The hero is Frank Brink, an American doctor who has conducted research on anthrax. However, his heart is not in destroying lives but in saving them.

A complicated series of events brings Frank together with Alix, a Frenchwoman whose father died after rescuing a group of Jews who had deliberately been infected with plague. Alix is obsessed with Juniper, a Brit who has a hidden agenda that he is not revealing. Wollenstein is a calculating German scientist whose dreams of personal glory rest on the cruel experiments he is conducting using Jewish prisoners. He wants to spread plague among the Allies and come up with an antidote that will protect the Germans. Kirn is a German policeman whose loyalty to his country is shaken by the horrors he sees around him. The paths of these and other characters intersect at some point during the novel. Will the Nazis succeed in stopping the Allied invasion using their deadly weapon, or will Brink and his cohorts somehow stop them in time?

"Midnight Plague" has an intriguing premise, but Keizer's convoluted plot and sluggish pacing undermine the effectiveness of his story. The characters are one-dimensional, the love story is tepid, the action scenes are implausible, and the plot is cluttered and incoherent. There are other better written and more exciting spy thrillers that I do recommend. Among them are Greg Rucka's "Private Wars," Brad Thor's "Blowback," and Stella Rimington's "At Risk."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spell-binding Story!, October 30, 2006

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Midnight Plague (Hardcover)

The deadline for D-Day is drawing near.A fishing boat comes aground on
British shore with a boatful of dead passengers.It is discovered that
they have died from a mysterious illness.Dr Frank Brink who has been
working with the British on an antibiotic to thwart a biological by the
Axis forces is sent to investigate.Dr. Brink interviews the surviving
member of the crew Alix and discovers that a dreaded biological weapon is being tested within the French lines.He suspects that it is pneumonic plague which has a one hundred percent death rate.
Dr.Brink and Alix must infiltrate occupied France.They have to locate the laboratory where the disease is being tested.They must find this location because the invasion of Normandy is close at hand.He has to stop his German counterpart from releasing the biological terror upon the
invading Allied forces.Another part of his mission is to steat the antidote if possible.
I found this book to be an exciting read just like the previous book "The Longest Night".Be sure to read this book.

2.0 out of 5 stars Very dull, July 15, 2008

By 

Matthew R. Morrison "Matthew Morrison" (Bloomington IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Midnight Plague (Paperback)

The book is not well written. I have several books on WWII and the Germans. There is not riviting plot or an gripping passages I seen. I put the book down by chapter 6.