February 15, 2019
Kalla, a physician in British Columbia, returns to medical thrillers, the foundation of his literary career, after a detour into historical fiction. It's a welcome return: a story about a NATO doctor who teams up with an expert from the World Health Organization to find out how a centuries-old plague has reappeared in the modern day. It's a tightly plotted thriller, energetic and completely believable. Kalla knows how to build a suspenseful story that doesn't stretch the bounds of plausibility. He also knows how to build realistic characters and put natural-sounding dialogue into their mouths, something many better-known medical-thriller authors often struggle to do. Readers who've enjoyed the author's historical fiction (including Rising Sun, Falling Shadow, 2013), but have been waiting for him to return to the present day, will be thrilled by the appearance of this top-drawer thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)