Bitter Paradise

March 9, 2020
Pennie’s fascinating fifth Dr. Zol Szabo medical mystery (after 2017’s Beneath the Wake) finds Canadian medical investigator Szabo, an infectious disease specialist, and his coworker and fiancée, Natasha Sharma, facing what could be “the biggest public-health circus... since that mad-cow debacle.” The sudden appearance of a virus with polio-like symptoms has the citizens of Hamilton, Ont., terrified. The epidemic’s first three cases came from an elementary school: two pupils recovered, but a teacher’s aide died. With the death toll rising, Szabo sets out to discover the identity and origin of the virus as well as why it emerged in Hamilton. A subplot concerns the murder of Marwan, a Syrian barber, who was knifed to death in front of Szabo’s 14-year-old son. This murder seems tame in contrast to the dramatic and surprising twists and turns of Szabo’s search for answers regarding the viral infection. Retired surgeon and pediatrician Pennie, himself an expert on infectious diseases, injects the narrative with authenticity and a sense of urgency. Michael Crichton fans will be pleased.

March 15, 2020
Infectious-disease specialist Pennie (Beneath the Wake, 2017, etc.) brews up a complicated medical mystery that puts a great many people in danger. Ontario Public Health epidemic investigator Dr. Zol Szabo's teenage son, Max, and his friend Travis are getting their hair cut when someone enters the shop and attacks Marwan, one of the barbers. Hosam, another barber, is a Syrian refugee and experienced trauma surgeon whose considerable skills cannot save the savagely injured man. As Zol, and even Max and Travis, works feverishly with his fiancee, Natasha, another investigator, to find the source of a sudden outbreak of polio, Hosam, formerly a wealthy and respected doctor, struggles to raise the money to become a licensed Canadian physician. His wife, Leila, a dentist also barred from practicing legally in Canada, uses the money from the secret dental clinic for poor refugees she runs out of their garage to support the family while Hosam studies. Marwan had told Hosam he was being coerced to do illegal jobs by a shadowy figure known as the Caliph, and now that he's gone, Hosam is forced to take his place. It's hard for Zol to track the relationships and contacts of many of the polio victims because they're refugees who speak little English. And since the outbreak is not caused by the usual polio virus but instead by a parvovirus, the team must consider a wide range of possible carriers, including starfish. When further tests reveal that the victims also carry Zika antibodies, the investigators ask where the patients could have contracted that disease, still considered tropical even though mosquitoes carrying it have been found near the Niagara River. Flowers, gangsters, and video games will all play a role in the quest for the truth. A masterly m�lange of medicine and murder with a topical look at the myriad problems refugees face.

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April 1, 2020
The fellow in the surveillance photo looks like actor Javier Bardem. One man frowning at the photo says the handsome devil is a barber in Ontario, Canada. Another says he's a respected surgeon, a Syrian refugee fleeing that country's secret police. A third claims he's a mystery man involved in an outbreak of a killer polio virus. Dr. Zol Szabo, a Canadian health official and star of this confounding, slow, but damnably brilliant novel, knows the Bardem-man is all three things, and he must be found. The investigation takes Szabo through the twilight world of immigrants fleeing unbelievable horrors in the Middle East and using dodgy ploys to stay alive in Canada, a country not as friendly as it seems. The writing is masterful, but there's too much of it. A kitchen fire goes on for six pages; impatient readers might blurt, "Move it, man!" but they'll likely be glad they stayed with the novel, not only for the prose and the impressive plotting, but also for the crackerjack finale, which begins when a cop says, "you won't believe what's in that garage."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)