Cold Plague (Mass Market Paperback)

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Key Phrases: cold plague, cattle supplier, ice sample, Lac Noir, Georges Manet, Detective Avars (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Kalla's meticulously detailed and carefully plotted new thriller, Dr. Claude Fontaine engineers a method to tap a huge, mysterious pool of fresh water two miles under the Antarctic ice without fear of contamination from our 21st-century toxins. His goal is to bottle this purest of waters and sell it for astronomical sums to health-seeking rich people everywhere. Meanwhile, infectious disease specialist Dr. Noah Haldane, hero of Kalla's Pandemic, along with his crusty, wisecracking Scottish sidekick, Duncan McLeod, travels to France to investigate seven cows that have tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalitis (aka mad cow disease). Several humans, the apparent victims of infected beef, have died horrible deaths. By the time the link between the Antarctic lake water and the mad cows becomes clear, many readers will find the journey too long and that in the end they don't really care that disaster has been narrowly averted and all those rich people have been saved. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Kalla’s latest medical thriller, following Blood Lies (2007), creates a very believable scenario about a prion-based disease (from the same type of organism that causes mad cow disease) that is unwittingly unleashed through samples from Antarctica’s underground body of water, Lake Vostok. Discovering that the million-year-old lake water may have healing properties, a group of entrepreneurs make plans to bottle and sell the solution, while covering up its lethal side effects. Dr. Noah Haldane and a World Health Organization team find themselves in a race to understand the mechanisms of the potentially world-threatening pathogen and stop the planned global distribution. Kalla develops his Robin Cook–like plot effectively, generating plenty of suspense and layering on the kind of scientific detail that fans of medical thrillers crave. Recommend this one to fans of Cook and other such other A-listers in the popular subgenre as Michael Palmer, Neil McMahon, and Joshua Spanogle. --Elliott Swanson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765357933
• ISBN-13: 978-0765357939
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #327,970 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not his best, September 24, 2009

By	Frank Villasenor - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Aftering seeing this book I decided to try Daniel's older "Blood Lies". I enjoyed it and decided to buy Cold Plague. I can't put my finger on why, but I enjoyed Blood Lies more. Despite that, I do think this is a good book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Bland, July 26, 2009

By	Woodlandtrails - See all my reviews

Written in 2008, Cold Plague's plot involves a prion filled ancient lake whose water is sold for profit. Unique and fascinating, the story lines were endless. Yet, Dr Kalla, a Canadian author/physician living in Canada choose to nauseatingly beat his relentless theme of the villain being yet another big bad capitalistic company this time either French/American or Russian (it was hard to tell). Doesn't Canada have any big bad Canadian companies? In addition, the writing itself fell short. It was not very suspenseful and most of the writing was bland. The ending was predicable long before the end with the story stuck in one gear with no real highs or lows.

After spending millions to drill for Antarctic oil (oil needed to heat homes/run cars, employ people and to not line the pockets of Middle East/South American enemies) the company is denied drilling rights. Denied their mean nasty oil profits, the corporate sponsors of this expedition turn lemon into lemonade and sell water instead. However, after finding out the water is poisonous, the big bad (Not Canadian) company decides to put profits before people and pedal knowingly dangerous water from Lake Vostok discovered while drilling to narcissistic vain health-seeking rich consumers in Bel Aire (that mean nasty U.S) and around the world claiming the water is everything from a beauty aid to a life extender. Don't they have stuck up narcissistic rich people in Canada either?

Dr Kalla is a physician employed by the Canadian universal health care industry turned author so naturally a magnanimous benevolent government plays the hero to the rescue in the form of government employed World Health Organization physicians and a French alphabet soup of bureaucracies to save the world from big bad capitalistic companies who pay the taxes that pay their salaries. His themes are as entrenched as the government bureaucracies he so loves.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor, May 11, 2009

By	Peter Oliver (Toronto) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Waste of time! I love this type of fiction when it's well written. I like science fiction that's "heavy on the science" so Cold Plague seemed like a "natural". Unfortunately the writing is uninspired, to say the least.

I was very tempted to put the book down on any number of occasions but "in for a penny..."I should have followed my instincts on this one!