The Return of the Spanish Lady

The mad scientist/millionaire/megalomaniac conspiracy formula gets a thorough rehash in Davis's latest Nicolette Scott mystery, following Wake of the Hornet (2000). Archaeologist Scott joins an expedition to Alaska to find a valuable Japanese plane downed during WWII. Backing for the project comes from a ""philanthropic"" pharmaceutical company, whose real motive is to locate the frozen bodies of a group of gold miners who died from the Spanish influenza that killed millions worldwide in 1918-1919; their camp is near the plane wreck site. The plan is to extract the flu virus from the 80-year-old corpses, reintroduce the disease, then make a fortune with an antidote. Davis alternates this paranoid plot with the tale of the miners, who were infected in New York City and died in Alaska. Her research and recreation of 1918 Manhattan provide some depth to an otherwise flat story. The contemporary characters are cardboard creations with their hearts on their sleeves. The action involves countless treks along snow-covered escarpments by a number of unlikely hikers. The most interesting characters--and most realistic threats--are a female grizzly and her two cubs, searching for food before going into hibernation. The plot devices--getting Scott to the locale of the airplane crash and then putting her in peril--are clunky enough, but the idea that a venal drug company would go to such ridiculous lengths asks too much of the reader. (Mar. 19)