The Iceman’s Curse
Nature, climate, and stupidity produce a pandemic.
Book Description:
Nature, climate, and stupidity produce a pandemic.
Grant Farnsworth, a post-doc student, veterinarian, and virologist at the University of Minnesota is upset when his professor tells him to prepare to work on tissue samples from a 1,200-year-old corpse called the Iceman, that was found in the Swiss Alps.
Grant is already working seven days a week and his wife is eight months pregnant with their second child. The situation becomes more complicated when a Swiss professor, to avoid regulations, smuggles the samples into the United States, putting Grant and his professor in legal jeopardy.
When a blizzard diverts the professor’s flight to Chicago, Customs is hectic, and the professor mistakenly swaps his suitcase with Frank, a drug mule. When Frank discovers the mistake he and a friend follow the professor north on I-94 with the intention to do whatever is necessary to recover the missing drugs.
When snow forces the professor to stop at a motel in the hamlet of Kirby, Wisconsin, he has no idea that he’s carrying drugs and that his life is in jeopardy.
When Switzerland announces that those who handled Iceman samples are ill, and several have died, Grant is sent to Kirby to find the Swiss professor and isolate the samples. At the same time, the CDC learns of the samples in Kirby and dispatches Dr. Sybil Erypet to Fort McCoy, a nearby Army base, to get the samples under control.
Between dangerous drug mules and infected tissue samples, many lives in the snow-bound village are in jeopardy.
Reviews for the Book
Author Gary Jones delivers a fast-paced, well-written, and entertaining satirical suspense story in The Iceman's Curse. Jones's writing is in the same league as Carl Hiaasen's humorous crime novels that take on current events, politics, and local customs. In The Iceman's Curse the mismanagement of a vial containing a deadly virus creates havoc for officials at all governmental levels including the military during a winter blizzard in Wisconsin. Dealing with impossible snow-covered roads adds to the hilarity caused by the desperate criminals and officials alike. A truth-seeking scientist with a pregnant wife due any day provides a warm thread throughout this story. This cinematic-style caper is perfect for readers who have also loved movies such as Fargo and Weekend at Bernie's. Gary Jones's novel is a triumph. If you haven't read his work yet, put The Iceman's Curse on your list. Highly recommended. - Review by Christine DeSmet, mystery novelist, writing coach, member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime
About the Author:
Gary Jones says his life has been a testament to questionable decisions and lost opportunities. However, his wife of many years says she knows of nothing in the record to justify such unfettered optimism.
Gary practiced bovine medicine in rural Wisconsin for nineteen years, returned to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, earned a PhD in microbiology, and spent the next nineteen years working on the research and development of bovine and swine vaccines. He retired in 2012.
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