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Alex Lettau

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.alexlettau.com/

Twitter

AlexLettau

Genre

Thriller, Crime, Mystery

Member Since

September 2015

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Alex Lettau is the pen name of Ludwig Alexander Lettau M.D., an infectious disease specialist who currently lives and works in Charleston, South Carolina.

In practice for more than 30 years, he holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Early in his career, Dr. Lettau was a medical missionary in Malawi (one year), Nicaragua (2 months), and Papua New Guinea (3 months). For two years he was a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) assigned to the Viral Hepatitis Branch of the Division of Viral Diseases.

Dr. Lettau has published (as first author) 20 scientific articles in med ...more

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What are you currently working on?

Alex Lettau I' m currently working on 2 more Kris Jensen infectious disease thriller novels. I hope to have Night Plague out by mid year and Death by Full Moon ou…moreI' m currently working on 2 more Kris Jensen infectious disease thriller novels. I hope to have Night Plague out by mid year and Death by Full Moon out by the end of the year.(less)

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Hi Alex, you are aware that I read, reviewed and loved your first book. So my question is: have you modeled yourself after any particular doctor who writes medical thrillers, or are you trying to break your own ground?

Alex Lettau Oops, sorry I didn't notice this question. I don't get many of them - so thanks for asking. I have read books by Tess Gerritsen, Michael Palmer, Micha…moreOops, sorry I didn't notice this question. I don't get many of them - so thanks for asking. I have read books by Tess Gerritsen, Michael Palmer, Michael Crichton, Robin Cook and a few other physician–authors. Also several books by James Rollins who trained as a veterinarian. I do admire their success as physician-authors and I suppose I may be subjectively influenced by their works, but I really don't model myself after them. At least my first book is very much derived from my personal experiences as a mission doctor and CDC epidemiologist. Every physician-author has a different background and past experiences. My career has been completely devoted to infectious diseases. I do know of one other ID-trained Doc who has written a novel (Richard Wenzel, "Labyrinth of Terror") but given the huge variety of infectious pathogens in our world, there is almost an infinite number of stories that can be told. I plan to focus all my novels on the sub genre of infectious disease thriller and will do my best to make them unique, fun, entertaining, thrilling and educational. It's not exactly breaking new ground but I will forge my own path to achieve those goals. Now if I could only afford to quit my day job to have more time to write!(less)

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Combine Editions
Alex Lettau’s books

Average rating: 4.15 · 205 ratings · 50 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	Yellow Death (Kris Jensen #1) 4.29 avg rating — 176 ratings — published 2015 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Night Plague (Kris Jensen, #2) 3.28 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2025 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Alex Lettau's Blog

BestThrillers Review of NIGHT PLAGUE

The Bottom Line: A wickedly original outbreak thriller grounded in scientific realism.

As Night Plague opens, former CDC epidemiologist Dr. Kris Jensen arrives in Stevens Crossing, Tennessee. The town is simmering with widespread insomnia, rage and impulsive violence. Kris comes at the invitation of Dan Stevens, a public health director who knows the town well enough to recognize that this isn’

Series by Alex Lettau

Kris Jensen (2 books)
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Alex Lettau (Goodreads Author)

4.15 avg rating — 205 ratings

Alex is Currently Reading

Alex Lettau is currently reading

Plum Island (John Corey, #1)

by Nelson DeMille

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Jan 19, 2018 05:52AM

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Alex Lettau wrote a new blog post BestThrillers Review of NIGHT PLAGUE The Bottom Line: A wickedly original outbreak thriller grounded in scientific realism. As Night Plague opens, former CDC epidemiologist Dr. Kris Jense Read more of this blog post »
Jan 23, 2026 02:09PM · like
Alex Lettau joined the group BestThrillers.com Book Awards
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Alex Lettau rated a book it was ok Night Plague (Kris Jensen #2) by Alex Lettau (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 31, 2025 10:58AM · like