ISBN 0-671-52536-0 (US pbk) ,,, 0-340-68879-3 (UK pbk)

"In his first novel, The Deus Machine , Pierre Ouellette imagined a domain that made 'Jurassic Park seem like a day at the zoo' (The Oregonian ). Now he follows that success with a biotech thriller that is as terrifying--and as plausible--as the true events recounted in The Hot Zone .

"The disease starts out like a cold--and soon turns deadly. Caused by a highly communicable, wildly aggressive bacteria immune to all known antibiotics, it will kill sixty percent of the global population within one year .... At this point it is just a theory--a brilliant, highly credible bit of research by California scientist Dr. Elaine Wilkes. Then, a world away, a bizarre confluence of events makes it real. As the fatal epidemic races toward American shores, communications crumble, the dead pile up, and the law of the streets takes over. In the midst of the madness, Dr. Wilkes struggles to deliver the cure, and a psychopathic genius readies the final, stunning blow.

"Powerfully written with a brilliant take on the near future--including a supercomputer composed of living cells -- The Third Pandemic explores a realm of terror that is all too possible." [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1997]

"Hold[s] the reader in a vise grip....Very scary, a fabulously grisly amusement not to be read in bed." -- (Kirkus Reviews ).

"You'll never look at communicable diseases the same way again. After reading this book, I was suspicious of every sneeze and cough around me." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , July 1997).