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Epidemia
Para los residentes de Manhattan, fue solo otro día de calor abrasador en agosto. Nadie sabía que ese día la muerte, en forma de un éxodo fantasmal de ratas infestadas de bichos, se había movido silenciosamente por las calles de la ciudad.
La espantosa plaga, conocida como la Peste Negra, estaba suelta en Manhattan.
¡Detrás de la guerra de gérmenes había un enemigo desconocido y un inframundo dispuesto que unió fuerzas en un intento de acabar con la ciudad más grande del mundo!
La espantosa plaga, conocida como la Peste Negra, estaba suelta en Manhattan.
¡Detrás de la guerra de gérmenes había un enemigo desconocido y un inframundo dispuesto que unió fuerzas en un intento de acabar con la ciudad más grande del mundo!
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
2 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Frank G. Slaughter
429 books80 followersFrank Gill Slaughter , pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C.V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies.
Slaughter was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Stephen Lucious Slaughter and Sarah "Sallie" Nicholson Gill. When he was about five years old, his family moved to a farm near Berea, North Carolina, which is west of Oxford, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College (now Duke University) at 17 and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He began writing fiction in 1935 while a physician at Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.
Books by Slaughter include The Purple Quest, Surgeon, U.S.A., Epidemic! , Tomorrow's Miracle and The Scarlet Cord. Slaughter died May 17, 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Slaughter was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Stephen Lucious Slaughter and Sarah "Sallie" Nicholson Gill. When he was about five years old, his family moved to a farm near Berea, North Carolina, which is west of Oxford, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College (now Duke University) at 17 and went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He began writing fiction in 1935 while a physician at Riverside Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.
Books by Slaughter include The Purple Quest, Surgeon, U.S.A., Epidemic! , Tomorrow's Miracle and The Scarlet Cord. Slaughter died May 17, 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 23, 2020
I felt like this was a good a time as any to pull this book off my shelf and check it out.
Due to current events, I was curious to see how a fictional epidemic in 1961 compared to today. Some things were different while some things seem to stay the same. Both plagues were probably caused by accident, yet the events seemed to be used by nefarious groups to further their own agenda. In both cases the authorities try their best to stop the plagues by quarantines and relying on first responders to man the trenches, which they did heroically. The authorities used mass media to get the information out like today. The difference being everyone in the story in 1961 worked together, whereas today's media and politicians seem to hinder each others' progress at times. In both cases there was mass quarantine in New York, and the majority of the citizens obeyed official instructions. The difference here being a epidemic of a few days verses ours of months.
One difference was the plague in 1961 was a version of the Black Plague whose culprit was a bacteria, while the enemy today is a virus. What caught my interest here was that one of the drugs they were going to use was streptomycin, which I use to make years ago. FYI, it came from another bacteria, that we grew in large fermenters. We harvested the chemical these bacteria gave off as a waste material!
Being as the persons of interest in this story were mainly medical personnel, the actions of these doctors and nurses were covered in pretty good detail. Pathology, surgery and autopsies were described minutely, which anyone interested would probably find fascinating, as long as one remembered this was state of the art in 1961.
It was worth the time and effort to read being as I am ironically in, today's terminology, lockdown (quarantine).
Due to current events, I was curious to see how a fictional epidemic in 1961 compared to today. Some things were different while some things seem to stay the same. Both plagues were probably caused by accident, yet the events seemed to be used by nefarious groups to further their own agenda. In both cases the authorities try their best to stop the plagues by quarantines and relying on first responders to man the trenches, which they did heroically. The authorities used mass media to get the information out like today. The difference being everyone in the story in 1961 worked together, whereas today's media and politicians seem to hinder each others' progress at times. In both cases there was mass quarantine in New York, and the majority of the citizens obeyed official instructions. The difference here being a epidemic of a few days verses ours of months.
One difference was the plague in 1961 was a version of the Black Plague whose culprit was a bacteria, while the enemy today is a virus. What caught my interest here was that one of the drugs they were going to use was streptomycin, which I use to make years ago. FYI, it came from another bacteria, that we grew in large fermenters. We harvested the chemical these bacteria gave off as a waste material!
Being as the persons of interest in this story were mainly medical personnel, the actions of these doctors and nurses were covered in pretty good detail. Pathology, surgery and autopsies were described minutely, which anyone interested would probably find fascinating, as long as one remembered this was state of the art in 1961.
It was worth the time and effort to read being as I am ironically in, today's terminology, lockdown (quarantine).
June 14, 2017
This was a fun read. I kept imagining this would make a great cheesy picture. Of course, unless it was filmed in the past it would lose some of its charm.
September 7, 2020
Ya know, it was written 50 years ago, pre ISBN. Ancient. But still a fun romp thru the Black Death attacking New York, with some Cold War skullduggery thrown in.
Lots of medical stuff, descriptions of the disease, etc., that are interesting. Pretty realistic view of how a large city would handle an epidemic like this. Good thing Manhattan is on its own island - lowers the bar for preventing folks from escaping quarantine.
Reread. Last time was probably when I was in my teens. Kinda fun.
UPDATE 2020-09. Ya know, they got it right. We are getting it wrong.
Lots of medical stuff, descriptions of the disease, etc., that are interesting. Pretty realistic view of how a large city would handle an epidemic like this. Good thing Manhattan is on its own island - lowers the bar for preventing folks from escaping quarantine.
Reread. Last time was probably when I was in my teens. Kinda fun.
UPDATE 2020-09. Ya know, they got it right. We are getting it wrong.
October 14, 2025
Es un libro algo antiguo que me dio curiosidad leer. Mi tía me lo prestó y aunque es apasionante el tema central del libro en este caso una epidemia y cómo se afronta, si que es verdad que se me hizo un poco largo y denso en algunas partes.
Tiene ciertos paralelismos con lo que pasamos en el año 2020 y como se abordó al principio ante el desconocimiento de la enfermedad.
Tiene ciertos paralelismos con lo que pasamos en el año 2020 y como se abordó al principio ante el desconocimiento de la enfermedad.
September 16, 2020
This book was hard to get through. Not because it’s not well written, or the characters aren’t likable, but because of the subject matter and how it treats the subject. I picked this book up from a LFL in Seattle, WA a couple of years ago; when traveling in airplanes, meeting random people, and doing random things were normal and taken for granted. I thought, at the time, it would be fun to read such a book during the same timeframe the story takes place: a hot week in August. Little did I know just two years later, what similarities there would be, besides a simple calendar overlap.
But there’s more to this story, this fiction, that was written in the 1960s than mere speculation on what would happen if plague hit NYC. This isn’t a science fiction novel. It’s not a guide book or a Worst Case Scenario manual. It’s a novel with several large topics and plots converging onto a very small portion of New York over a short amount of time. It’s a good story. Even if at times it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.
It was hard to finish. The plague was real. The symptoms and the prognoses equally so. The solution, well, I don’t want to have to use the Spoilers toggle switch, so I’ll just say this: their dealing with plague was nothing like how the US is continuing to deal with COVID-19.
It was hard to read the book and not make the parallels. Or to see where the book is unrealistic. In the book everyone wore masks. There was nothing political about it. It was a matter of life and death, not reason to protest or a topic that needed to be debated. The masses of people were civil, obedient, and, for the most part, 2 dimensional extras that were nothing like today’s population.
And speaking of differences, this book, this work of fiction, followers the leaders, the doctors, the heroes. They have what they need. And above all they show confidence through action. When they speak, it’s believable and honest. As true fictional heroes, they have transcended many human attributes and want only to save humanity. Again, the landscape of then versus now is wildly different, making the book, for me, a difficult one.
I’d have had a different opinion of this book had I read it in August of 2018 of 2019 rather than this year. COVID-19, with its ongoing quarantine, the early days of cleaning supplies and toilet paper being in short supply, and with the news of it being so politically charged every day, is nothing at all like what Eric and team had to deal with. I’m not suggesting they would have a better time now then they did with plague, but in the construct and the world created by Mr. Slaughter, they were given a somewhat believable upper hand we don’t have in real life today.
But there’s more to this story, this fiction, that was written in the 1960s than mere speculation on what would happen if plague hit NYC. This isn’t a science fiction novel. It’s not a guide book or a Worst Case Scenario manual. It’s a novel with several large topics and plots converging onto a very small portion of New York over a short amount of time. It’s a good story. Even if at times it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.
It was hard to finish. The plague was real. The symptoms and the prognoses equally so. The solution, well, I don’t want to have to use the Spoilers toggle switch, so I’ll just say this: their dealing with plague was nothing like how the US is continuing to deal with COVID-19.
It was hard to read the book and not make the parallels. Or to see where the book is unrealistic. In the book everyone wore masks. There was nothing political about it. It was a matter of life and death, not reason to protest or a topic that needed to be debated. The masses of people were civil, obedient, and, for the most part, 2 dimensional extras that were nothing like today’s population.
And speaking of differences, this book, this work of fiction, followers the leaders, the doctors, the heroes. They have what they need. And above all they show confidence through action. When they speak, it’s believable and honest. As true fictional heroes, they have transcended many human attributes and want only to save humanity. Again, the landscape of then versus now is wildly different, making the book, for me, a difficult one.
I’d have had a different opinion of this book had I read it in August of 2018 of 2019 rather than this year. COVID-19, with its ongoing quarantine, the early days of cleaning supplies and toilet paper being in short supply, and with the news of it being so politically charged every day, is nothing at all like what Eric and team had to deal with. I’m not suggesting they would have a better time now then they did with plague, but in the construct and the world created by Mr. Slaughter, they were given a somewhat believable upper hand we don’t have in real life today.
December 17, 2021
Not as delightfully pulpy as the exclamation-marked title gave me hope it would be :( But if nothing else I suppose it was nice to read about an epidemic that lasts a week and then is solved and presumably offers no more problems to anyone ever again. I kept squinting dubiously at this book's lockdown measures etc but I think it's just unfortunate that I have had a crash course in disease tranmission these past few years, that's not the author's fault and I can't hold it against him. He made up for these dodgy preventative measures with some extremely detailed operation desriptions which I frankly wish had been a bit less detailed
The book is actually only half about an epidemic, the other half is focused on this weird gangland/saboteur subplot and I really didn't know what to take away from it. I don't think I even know who is behind it????? I assumed it was Communists because this was written in the 1960s but the book is remarkably unclear on this. Anyway this was a bit of a slog in general but also delightful in several small ways including a straight up psychopathic secretary character I was cheering on til the end & the implication that a symptom of the Black Death is desiring to take off all your clothes and prance around naked. There is also a bit of RAT POV near the beginning when a plague ridden rat is making its way off a ship and into NY, which was just funny to me. Wish this whole novel had been in rat POV
The book is actually only half about an epidemic, the other half is focused on this weird gangland/saboteur subplot and I really didn't know what to take away from it. I don't think I even know who is behind it????? I assumed it was Communists because this was written in the 1960s but the book is remarkably unclear on this. Anyway this was a bit of a slog in general but also delightful in several small ways including a straight up psychopathic secretary character I was cheering on til the end & the implication that a symptom of the Black Death is desiring to take off all your clothes and prance around naked. There is also a bit of RAT POV near the beginning when a plague ridden rat is making its way off a ship and into NY, which was just funny to me. Wish this whole novel had been in rat POV
April 19, 2020
This book was ok. It was slow moving, but it was interesting how some of the things they did in the book related to what we are doing today with the corona virus. The last 50 pages things finally picked up. I could tell he can write well and it could have been entertaining.
January 13, 2008
Epidemic! by Frank G. Slaughter (1962)
November 15, 2010
Epidemic! by Frank G. Slaughter (1962)
November 26, 2017
And everyone lived happily ever after... except for those poor souls who died of the plague. An underground rebellion hits NYC at the same time as the plague and for awhile there is concern that they are related. This is a really old novel and I'm sure the story was much more dramatic in its day. It would have made one of those compelling afternoon movies back in the day (pre CGI and all that nonsense).
June 27, 2025
DNF...I read a review about author Frank G. Slaughter who writes medical thrillers. His books sounded interesting so I though I'd give Epidemic a read...Unfortunately after about 40 pages I just wasn't getting into the book. The story seemed a little basic and his prose was kinda bloated...It wasn't a total wash-out and maybe I'll return to this book in the future....but for now it's not grabbing me and I've decided to move on...ciao!
November 5, 2020
A 1961 fictional story about a plague infecting New York, and how they shut down the island and distributed medication to everyone to stop it, with a subplot of a gang trying to cause havoc at the same time. The world is living through its own epidemic at the moment, with COVID-19 spreading.
June 15, 2009
Epidemic! by Frank G. Slaughter (1962)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews