ANN BENSON

El diario de un médico medieval puede contener la clave para paliar una epidemia apocalíptica en pleno siglo XXI.Siglo xIv: la peste bubónica, la peor epidemia de la historia, asola el viejo continente. El medico de origen español Alejandro Canches aborda el mayor de los retos: enfrentarse a la muerte y vencerla. En el crepusculo del siglo x xI, el mundo se ve azotado por una pandemia. El viejo diario del medico medieval puede signifcar la unica posibilidad de salvar a la humanidad. Separados por mas de seiscientos años, y unidos por algo mas que una mision comun, dos medicos luchan por acabar con las plagas mas destructivas de la historia.

El diario de un médico medieval puede contener la clave para paliar una epidemia apocalíptica en pleno siglo XXI.A los doctores Alejandro Canches y Jane Crow les separan más de 600 años. Él combatió la terrible epidemia de peste bubonica que asolo toda Europa hace tiempo; ella lucha por regenerar la vida en la Tierra tras una fatidica pandemia propagada por unos terroristas. Pero en el diario de este doctor que ejercio en la epoca del reinado de Eduardo III y que participo en las intrigas sucesorias de la corte, pueden estar las claves para que Jane encuentre una solucion a la pandemia. La aclamada autora de Ladron de almas (Grijalbo, 2003) nos sumerge en los oscuros años de la Europa medieval al mismo tiempo que nos da una vision apocaliptica de un futuro posible.Una trama trepidante de ciencia ficcion que retoma el personaje de la doctora que sale en La plaga y La ruta de fuego; aunque cada novela puede leerse de forma independiente.Los grandes temas de la actualidad el terrorismo bioquimico, la clonacion o el fundamentalismo religioso semezclan habilmente con la recreacion historica de una Europa azotada por la peste.Primer Capitulo:(c) 2006, Ann Benson (c) 2007, Alberto Coscarelli Guaschino, por la traduccion (c)2008, Random House Mondadori, S.A. Travessera de Gracia, 47-49. 08021 Barcelona

Continuación de La plaga, una de las novelas más exitosas de los últimos años, Ruta de fuego abarca desde la Francia del siglo XVI hasta los Estados Unidos del 2007, enlazando dos historias emocionantes y dos epocas extraordinarias. Esta es la peripecia de dos medicos separados por siglos pero unidos en su busqueda de formulas y medicamentos capaces de detener el peor azote que la humanidad haya sufrido nunca.

¿Qué ocurre cuando la peste bubónica, ausente durante tanto tiempo del mundo moderno, reaparece en la sociedad del siglo XXI? La plaga urde con brillantez dos relatos paralelos. En el siglo XIV, el medico Alejandro Canches se salva de ser ejecutado por realizar una autopsia y en su huida recorre la Europa de la Peste Negra

Dos casos paralelos de asesinatos en serie: Uno acontecido en Francia, en 1440: la abadesa Guillemet piensa llegar hasta el final para desenmascarar al culpable, un acaudalado caballero próximo a la corte, antiguo compañero de armas de Juana de Arco.

Part historical novel, part futuristic adventure . . . chock full of curious lore and considerable suspense.Entertainment WeeklyIt is historys most feared disease. It turned neighbor against neighbor, the civilized into the savage, and the living into the dead. Now, in a spellbinding novel of adventure and science, romance and terror, two eras are joined by a single trace of microscopic bacteriumthe invisible seeds of a new bubonic plague. In the year 1348, a disgraced Spanish physician crosses a landscape of horrors to Avignon, France. There, he will be sent on an impossible mission to England, to save the royal family from the Black Death. . . . Nearly seven hundred years later, a woman scientist digs up a clod of earth in London. In a world where medicine is tightly controlled, she will unearth a terror lying dormant for centuries. From the primitive cures of the Middle Ages to the biological police state of our near future, The Plague Tales is a thrilling race against time and mass destruction. For in 2005, humankinds last hope for survival can come only from one place: out of a dark and tortured past.Praise for The Plague TalesBenson reveals a formidable talent as she blends historical fiction with a near-future bio-thriller.Publishers Weekly (starred review)Harrowing . . . Will give readers both nightmares and thrills . . . A carefully woven page-turner from which . . . Robin Cook and Michael Crichton could learn.Library JournalA hard-to-put-down thriller steeped in historical fiction and bio-tech sci-fi.Middlesex News (Mass.)

With her acclaimed novels The Plague Tales and The Burning Road, Ann Benson has carved out a unique place on the literary landscape with her fascinating alchemy of mystery, history, and psychological terror. Now this gifted storyteller returns with an astounding tale of two crime waves separated by nearly 600 years. In each, the victims are children. In each, the perpetrator is a man of power and renown. And in each, the pursuit of justice is spearheaded by a woman who has seen the face of evil up closeand whose own life is entwined with a madmans. In the city of Nantes, in the year 1440, a woman hurries through the cobblestoned streets. Her world of faith, loyalty, and family is buckling under the weight of her suspicions about a dead child . . . and others who may have met the same fateall at the hands of the same killerthe infamous Gilles de Rais. Soon Guillemette le Drappiere, companion to the Bishop of Nantes, is investigating the young nobleman she helped raise from infancy. To unravel the truth, Guillemette must enter a dark realm of power, perversion, bloodlustand bring to it the unforgiving light of the church she serves. In the city of Los Angeles, in the year 2002, a detective gets the kind of call she dreads most: My child is gone. Lany Dunbar, a mother, a cop, and a veteran of human horrors, cannot be prepared for where this search will lead her. For within days, Lany is certain that this missing-child case has exposed the work of a serial killer. At odds with her own department, sure that her killer is becoming more emboldened, Lany zeroes in on a suspectwhile a suspect zeroes in on her. . . . Two horrific crime sprees. Two extraordinary eras. The connections between them are at once eerie, compelling, and surprising. Only Ann Benson can weave together the strands of history and suspense with such mastery. Skillfully blending past and present, myth and reality, Benson catapults us from an age when wolves ran wild through the streets of Paris to an age of high-tech criminal profiling. A riveting, rousing adventure through time, history, and forensic science, Thief of Souls introduces two unforgettable characters, separated by centuries, linked by a passionate quest for justice. For in a race to stop monsters from more monstrous crimes, both women will discover a frightening truth: that within a killer is a child, and within a child are seeds of both innocence and evil.

From the bestselling author of The Plague Tales comes a spellbinding new novel that sweeps from medieval France to America in the year 2007interweaving two gripping stories and two extraordinary eras....In fourteenth-century France, pockets of plague still bring death to peasants and noblemen alike. Amid the fury and the chaos, Dr. Alejandro Canches searches for a safe haven, accompanied by his foster child, Katethe illegitimate daughter of Edward Plantagenet. But both disease and human enemies pursue them, and their only hope for survival is a rebel leader... and medical secrets that lie hidden in an ancient manuscript.Seven hundred years later, Dr. Janie Crowe is searching for the cure for a crippling disease in a world where genetic engineering has gone mad. A repressive government wants to stop her, unnamed benefactors want to help her, and time is running out to find answers linking two dark eras, two dedicated doctors, and one miraculous book....

Sweeping us from plague-ravaged Europe to the terrifying near future, acclaimed author Ann Benson brings two eras brilliantly to life. The Physicians Tale is a spellbinding saga of two healers separated by six centuries, both facing terror and trials, bound together by history, science, and destiny.In the near future, in the hills of the American Northeast, a group of men, women, and children band together for survival against nature and human enemies, huddling in the only corner of the world they know. Among these people is Janie Crowe, a physician whose son is her greatest hope and deepest secret. Etched into Janies memory is the ancient journal of a Jewish man of medicinea man who fought for survival in his own age of plague.In Europe, in the age of the Black Death, Alejandro Canches must hide his identityand break his oath as a physician for the sake of his and his loved ones lives. As France and England are locked in war, and disease lays waste to both, Alejandros daughter Kate is caught in the clutches of King Edward of England. Betrayed by a patient, hunted by the king, Alejandro makes a desperate journey to Windsor itself, where a clever scribe named Geoffrey Chaucer has hatched a fantastic plan for Kates escape.... As the story of Alejandro and his family builds to a gripping climax, and as Janies life is racked by trials and the dawning of a new age, The Physicians Tale brings together a rich cast of friends and lovers, traitors and healers. Unraveling mysteries of science, history, and the human heart, Ann Benson has created a stunning chronicle of courage in the face of darknessin a work of vibrant storytelling and unrelenting suspense.

¿Qué ocurre cuando la peste bubónica, ausente durante tanto tiempo del mundo moderno, reaparece en la sociedad del siglo XXI? La plaga urde con brillantez dos relatos paralelos. En el siglo XIV, el médico Alejandro Canches se salva de ser ejecutado por realizar una autopsia y en su huida recorre la Europa de la Peste Negra. Finalmente es enviado, contra su voluntad, a la corte de Eduardo III de Inglaterra para combatir la epidemia. En dramático contrapunto, la arqueóloga y médica Janie Crowe llega a la Inglaterra del siglo XXI e involuntariamente, provoca la difusión de una mortífera bacteria en un mundo que no está preparado para combatirla. En un futuro en que los antibióticos han perdido toda eficacia y un pasado dominado por el terror, estos dos héroes, muy a su pesar, se ven unidos por la historia.

En Nantes, 1440, un importante hombre de estado, que ha luchado junto al rey a Juana de Arco, se ve involucrado en un caso de desaparición de niños. En los Ángeles, en el 2002, aquel caso será precedente importante para el agente Dubar, que investiga el mismo tipo de desapariciones, todas con inquietantes coincidencias en sus circunstancias. 

Ruta de fuego abarca desde la Francia del siglo XVI hasta los Estados Unidos de 2007, enlazando dos historias emocionantes y dos épocas extraordinarias. Esta novela relata la peripecia de dos médicos separados por siglos pero unidos en su busqueda de formulas y me dicamentos capaces de detener el peor azote que la humanidad haya sufrido nunca...El medico Alejandro Canches huye con Kate de la corte inglesa y atraviesa Francia de incognito, pero en su camino ayuda a las victimas de la peste negra. Kate se enamora de un lider rebelde con el que vive increibles vicisitudes y Alejandro cae prisionero de un siniestro profesor de medicina. La situacion de ambos se complica cada vez mas, mientras los ingleses los persiguen sin desmayo...Por su parte, la doctora Janie Crowe se enfrenta a un pavoroso rebrote de la plaga que diezmo gran parte de la poblacion y debe recluirse en una comunidad secreta de cientificos e investigadores. Alli emprenderan una carrera contra el tiempo para encontrar un antidoto contra un virus que podria acabar con todo vestigio de vida en el planeta.