Book Review: Quarantine
It is seldom that I meet a book that I didn't like. Unfortunately, this in one of those times. After reading the publishers synopsis, I was very excited to read it.
The premise of the story is that a ship comes into port with a contagious disease. Because it is the 1790's, the best way to deal with this is to quarantine the ship in the harbor. Of course, there are characters that don't like this idea, but a stubborn and trying-to-be-enlightened physician mandates it. When the sickness makes its way ashore, it begins to decimate the population. Black markets for semi-effective drugs begin, and a pest house must be set up.
The potential is there for a fantastic story, but the author never seems to be able to decide who is the main character. Is it the Harbormaster's son, Leander, who's entire family is wiped out during the quarantine? Is it Miranda the greedy and unscrupulous mother of the ship's owner? Is it Giles the physician that initiates the quarantine and is Miranda's second son who doesn't seem to have much familial emotion towards his mother? Is is Marie, the woman from the ship with the mysterious and questionable past who is pulled from the Harbor almost drowned? Is it Enoch or Samuel, the son and grandson respectively of Miranda the profligate offspring in the dysfunctional family?
Without knowing who is driving the story, it is easy to lose interest in what is essentially a snapshot of a harbor town under quarantine. The characters needed more depth to be sympathetic or even understandable. It is unlikely that the upright physician will go from the death bed of the woman he has loved for years and finding out he has a son that he can not acknowledge to within a week of so having a relationship with a woman that may or may not be after his family's fortune in the back seat of a carriage.
The book tests the limits of inevitability in its characters beyond the breaking point. With so many great books out there to read, don't waste time on this one.
I was provide with this book from Netgalley.com for the purpose of reading and reviewing it. The opinions are my own, unsolicited, and no compensation is offered for them.
