No “Peace on Earth” until the End of the Novel by J.L. Greger

“Peace on Earth” is a frequent blessing. However, readers don’t want “peace on earth” until the end of a novel. This is another way of saying that novels, especially mysteries and thrillers, depend on tension.

In most thrillers, much of this tension is caused by physical threats. The threat in The Flu Is Coming is a new strain of the flu, called the Philippine flu.

The threats used in novels must be plausible to engage readers. Thus, readers of The Flu Is Coming watch as physicians and scientists treat patients and collect data on this new strain of flu virus as it kills almost half of a small, gated community in New Mexico. As would occur in a real public health emergency of this sort, the residents of the community, named La Bendita, are quarantined to keep the flu from spreading.

However, physical threats alone are not enough to sustain a satisfying novel. Remember how teachers in high school and college literature classes drilled most of us on symbolism in novels, especially Moby Dick. Although many of those discussions still seem overblown to me, It is the inner (emotional and intellectual) turmoil of characters that sustains the interest of readers of a book.

The protagonist In The Flu Is Coming Is Sara Almquist. She’s a resident of La Bendita and an experienced medical epidemiologist. She knows what needs to be done scientifically and has analyzed epidemics before, but now she’s studying her neighbors and friends. She is further tormented when she discovers the criminal histories of several residents and must help the police trap these residents before they escape the quarantine.

Finally, although we desire “peace on earth” and expect the tensions in a novel to be resolved by the last page of the novel, some of us like one unsettling note at the end of a tale to make us think. The Flu Is Coming  has that note as you would expect because it’s the first book in the Science Traveler series. The next book in the series is Murder: A Way to Lose Weight.

Elevator pitch: In The Flu Is Coming, epidemiologist Sara Almquist is trying to stop two killers: the Philippine flu, which is rapidly wiping out everyone in a walled community in New Mexico, and a drug kingpin determined to break out of the quarantined enclave.

The paperback version of The Flu Is Coming is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Flu-Coming-Science-Traveler/dp/0578423251. The Kindle version at:

https://www.amazon.com/Flu-Coming-Science-Traveler-Book-ebook/dp/B07KX3J37W

Bio: J.L. Greger is a scientist and research administrator turned novelist. She likes to include tidbits of science in her award-winning thriller/mystery novels: Murder: A Way to Lose, Malignancy, Riddled with Clues, and others. To learn more, visit http://www.jlgreger.com.