Carrie Rubin is a physician who has a humor blog here: The Write Transition
She makes me chuckle with every post. She is a most insightful person and it is a pleasure to know her.
She is also an author and has a wonderful award winning book out: “Seneca Scourge”. If you have not read it yet, I highly encourage you to give it a read.
Seneca Scourge is a medical thriller/sci-fi. It starts off like many other medical thrillers with a terrible disease we must find a cure for. Rubin did not choose some complex disease that no one could relate to. She chose a familiar one. It is an influenza strain that devolves from an ordinary common occurrence into a nightmare with the potential to infect billions around the globe. Dr. Sydney McKnight gets assigned to do research with Dr. Casper Jones, a rather odd fellow who whose behavior sends up some red flags.
People are dying. The numbers are more than alarming. Racing to beat the clock on this dreadful disease that starts out innocently enough, Sydney is appalled when she discovers Casper Jones injecting her patient with something he passes off as steroids. Here is where the medical thriller that has kept you on the edge of your seat takes an unusual twist with a sci-fi flavor that is remarkably creative and fascinating to read. Suspending disbelief is part of the fun!
Rubin does a fantastic job creating characters and situations that touch your soul. Being a health care provider myself, I was enthralled by the realism of the hospital situation in crisis. It reminded me of the ten days we suffered in 2004 with four hurricanes back to back and overflowing hallways, only worse. There is no end in sight. When the light appears at the end of the tunnel, the book takes yet another unexpected twist. The ending was interesting and made me think deeply on the future of medicine.
If you want a fast paced, well-written read that is full of unexpected twists and turns, you will enjoy this book.
I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
S.K. Nicholls 