Days after some puzzling human deaths at sea, rats scurry down the gangway of an ancient tramp steamer as it docks in Manhattan. The captain, victim of a disease contracted from deckhands illegally signed on in West Africa, visits his blowsy girl friend in her apartment. The rats over-run a sleeping drunk. The captain kisses his female friend—who happens to come into contact with hundreds as a cafeteria cashier. Thus does Frank G. Slaughter, busiest medical author of the day, chronicler of Biblical, historical, romantic and military-surgical triumphs, set the scene for his latest novel ["Epidemic!"].

The time is 1965. The events take place during a frantic seven days in Manhattan when immunologists, bacteriologists, police and other city agencies fight a unique, frighteningly contagious and anachronistic enemy—plague….

"Epidemic!" is not only an account of how surgeon Bob Trent and immunologist Eric Stowe doggedly meet the exacting demands...