A chilling bloodbath that you’ll binge from the edge of your seat.
America is living in a period of unparalleled advancements in biotechnology. With applications ranging from gene therapy to pollution mitigation, the possibilities seem limitless, and nobody is blazing a trail brighter than microbiologist Mae Louise Vicar. Kindhearted and eager to please, Mae loves her family, is a loyal friend, and spends her free time volunteering with an international aid organization. Whenever her closest friend asks Mae to dress a certain way or her sponging boss levies a demanding deadline, Mae always cooperates without putting up a fight. But one pleasant April morning sees a change in family-friendly Orlando, Florida. Without any warning beyond a sour mood, Mae goes on a deadly rampage, adding another number to the sad tally of recent mass murders. Her friend, Kanetha, can’t reconcile the generous woman she’s always known with how the media is portraying Mae. Something must have gone wrong and Kanetha won’t rest until she figures it out. Fighting against outright hatred and lies, Kanetha tracks down every lead she can think of, with Mae’s research lab at the top of her list. Unfortunately, Kanetha’s hunch is right, and vindicating Mae’s name is only the beginning of what proves to be an infectious nightmare.
If you thought living through the Covid pandemic was like a years-long fever dream, get ready to feel that anxiety multiplied tenfold in The Murder Plague. A setting familiar to most readers and a cast of relatable characters give this dramatic novel a disturbingly intimate feel. On top of that, the idea of an engineered virus is no longer the stuff of speculative fiction, but a current reality, one that Scott Michael Powers exploits to maximum effect. Solemnly heading the chapters with a crushing designation of exactly how many days have passed since the outbreak, the narration ramps up in intensity as calmness erodes and the death toll rises. As the world descends into violent chaos, certain mundane aspects of humanity remain unchanged, balancing the tone and keeping the story eerily plausible. And even a murderous virus isn’t enough to dismantle modern issues of gentrification, biased media, racism, and corruption. Capitalizing on the contagious level of pandemic hype and fear, The Murder Plague is a chilling bloodbath that you’ll binge from the edge of your seat.
