Synopses & Reviews
Already a collector's item in its hardcover edition, "The Plague Tales" -- part historical novel, part 21st century thriller -- has received wide critical acclaim and has the makings of a classic in the tradition of Diana Gabaldon's first novel, Outlander.
Fourteenth century physician Alejandro Canches, caught performing a forbidden autopsy in his Spanish homeland, flees through Europe at the time of the Black Death to escape execution. But when he arrives in the Papal city of Avignon, he is conscripted to serve as a Plague Doctor, and sent against his wishes to the court of England's Edward III.
Unfolding in a dramatic counterpoint is the story of American medical archaeologist Janie Crowe, in England at the turn of the twenty-first century to recover from the tragic loss of her family. She digs up a medieval artifact as part of her research, and unwittingly releases a deadly plague bacteria on an unprepared world.
In a future where antibiotics are useless and a past where death is an everpresent fear, these two unwilling heroes are linked by history and defined by circumstance. Here are their stories -- the plague tales.
Synopsis
"Part historical novel, part futuristic adventure . . . chock full of curious lore and considerable suspense."--Entertainment Weekly It is history's most feared disease. It turned neighbor against neighbor, the civilized into the savage, and the living into the dead. Now, in a spellbinding novel of adventure and science, romance and terror, two eras are joined by a single trace of microscopic bacterium--the invisible seeds of a new bubonic plague.
In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There, he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death. . . .
Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries.
From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future, The Plague Tales is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction. For in 2005, humankind's last hope for survival can come only from one place: out of a dark and tortured past.
Praise for The Plague Tales
"Benson reveals a formidable talent as she blends historical fiction with a near-future bio-thriller."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Harrowing . . . Will give readers both nightmares and thrills . . . A carefully woven page-turner from which . . . Robin Cook and Michael Crichton could learn."--Library Journal
"A hard-to-put-down thriller steeped in historical fiction and bio-tech sci-fi."--Middlesex News (Mass.)
Synopsis
It is history's most feared disease. It turned neighbor against neighbor, the civilized into the savage, and the living into the dead. Now, in a spellbinding novel of adventure and science, romance and terror, two eras are joined by a single trace of microscopic bacterium—the invisible seeds of a new bubonic plague.
In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There, he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death....
Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries.
From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future, The Plague Tales is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction. For in 2005, humankind's last hope for survival can come only from one place: out of a dark and tortured past.
About the Author
Ann Benson, a product development consultant, began her writing career with three bestselling books on crafts. She maintains a lifelong interest in biology and history, and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her family. The Plague Tales is her first novel.