cover image Blood Heat

Blood Heat

Steve R. Pieczenik. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, $17.95 (348pp) ISBN 978-0-15-113216-4

The concept on which this medical thriller is based is more likely to freeze the reader's blood than heat it: the use of the latest biogenetic technology to spread deadly diseases in order to make a fortune curing them. Pieczenik, author of the bestselling Mind Palace and a master of ingenious plotting, if not of characterization or literary style, puts the idea to work to most dramatic effect. At the end of World War II, Army officers Webb and Parker make a deal with the sinister but brilliant Dr. Ran, head of an infamous Japanese institute that uses prisoners as guinea pigs in a germ-warfare program: their silence about his crimes for his scientific cooperation. Forty-five years later, Ran is chief researcher for Webb's giant pharmaceutical company, Parker is the U.S. Army's surgeon general, and the stage is set for a potentially genocidal project masquerading as part of the army's antigerm-warfare plans. Meanwhile, a Washington epidemiologist discovers several mysterious cases of bubonic plague and, though possibly infected himself, embarks on a race against time to avert a national catastrophe. An abundance of violence, suspense and medical know-how throws a cover of plausibility over the whole tale. (April)