Publisher's Synopsis
Detective James Terrier is despised by virtually every policeman in Baltimore and his ex-wife believes he is a total loser only interested in four B's: booze, blues, Buddha, and bad guys. But he is the best damn detective in the state and the one the power-hungry governor has called on to solve a horrific rape, kidnapping and possible murder of a beautiful, promising actress. The Plague Virus follows Lieutenant Terrier on the trail of a number of bizarre suspects. Who raped and/or kidnapped Jody Taylor? Was it the four college frat guys at the party? The obsessed director of grade-B horror films? One of her menage a' trois partners or one of her HIV-positive victims? It could be Byron Manchester, her leading man who is taking a new Amazonian LSD-like drug, and hearing the disembodied voice of Daniel Defoe, author of Journal of the Plague Year. Or perhaps, his wife Donna who is also ingesting the drug and seeing phantasmagoric images from the Book of Revelation flashing out of MTV videos. One of Terrier's great challenges is figuring out if this drug is connected to the disappearance of Jody Taylor. And what about this "doomsday drug?" How could a drug make every person hallucinate phantom voices prophesying Armageddon and create the urge to kill? Out of the blue Terrier is stunned to learn that Jody Taylor may have been HIV-positive and sleeping with guys on purpose to give them the AIDS virus. Suddenly, he is confronted with a victim who may be more dangerous, more psychotic than the suspects.