- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; First Edition edition (22 Jan 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747548358
- ISBN-13: 978-0747548355
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,725,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
If you are one of the lucky ones who read Peter Millar's Stealing Thunder, a first novel of much skill and ingenuity, you'll be aware that Millar is a writer whose work is garnished with meticulously researched historical detail. The second novel is, of course, a tricky proposition for many writers, but Bleak Midwinter is even more striking than the first book, with its terrifying vision of plague threatening the City of Oxford. Shortly before Christmas, Rajiv Mahendra (who is a trainee doctor at an Oxford hospital) encounters a patient whose rare symptoms remind him of his native India--and a disease he fears, bubonic plague. This continent has been untouched since the Black Death killed one-third of the population centuries ago, but history looks set to repeat itself. A young history student, Daniel Warren, steals into the hospital to find out more about the patient, and then a woman reporter for a local newspaper discovers what is happening. Soon we are gripped by a narrative in which the tension is steadily screwed tighter, and Millar undoubtedly knows his stuff. Will it remain possible to contain the secret as more and more people learn the truth? And might the bacteria have been accidentally awakened from its dormant state, with hideous carnage the result? As before, Millar freights in the historical detail as a striking counterpoint to his modern narrative (of considerable significance is the small village of Nether Ditchford, whose entire population died in the winter of 1348-49), while his characters are never dwarfed as the massive threat of a new Black Death looms ever larger. Dialogue, too, has a sharp authenticity that gives the nightmare a grim plausibility. --Barry Forshaw
Oxford Times, 24th January 2002
‘A fast-moving informative thriller which keeps you turning the pages’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read all the reviews and waited to read this book with anticipation - and was sadly disappointed. The idea was good but the author failed to develop the central theme to my satisfaction. In fact the idea of a re-visitation of the plague to a modern Oxford seemed to take a poor second place to a Cold War type thriller. I shall seek for a copy of Connie Wills book in the hope that it doesn't likewise disappoint.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Totally agree with the other reviewer - how crass can Millar's complaints about housing development get? According to him, developers are big greedy adulterous men buying up acres of countryside for themselves while ruining our green villages. . . I live in a village in the area where this book it set, and it's still very rural, despite the new homes.
Another soap-box he seems to be on in this novel is the NHS. By page 37 I had counted at least 3 mentions of how hard worked junior doctors and nurses are. I bought this book as a thrilling novel, not some Daily Maily treatise. But then, I read the biog and Millar used to write for the Daily Mail and Evening Standard, as well as being a Parish Councillor, so it makes sense.
I also disliked the way each chapter was about 3 pages long before the next one jumped to another scene. It felt like a tacky film script and now I see it's been made into one. Figures!
Another soap-box he seems to be on in this novel is the NHS. By page 37 I had counted at least 3 mentions of how hard worked junior doctors and nurses are. I bought this book as a thrilling novel, not some Daily Maily treatise. But then, I read the biog and Millar used to write for the Daily Mail and Evening Standard, as well as being a Parish Councillor, so it makes sense.
I also disliked the way each chapter was about 3 pages long before the next one jumped to another scene. It felt like a tacky film script and now I see it's been made into one. Figures!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To anyone who has read Connie Wills 'Doomsday Book', the plot of Peter Millar's 'Bleak Midwinter' will seem rather familiar. Both are set in Oxford; in both the plot hinges on the plague in the past and in the present (or in Connie Wills' book, the near present) day. There really are too many coincidences from a key doctor in each dying of the disease to the cordon round Oxford (and more but I don't want to spoil the plot of either book for you). And of the two books, Connie Wills' is far more readable.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
don' t bother
Starts off promisingly - turns into a load of tosh, as if he suddenly got a deadline and had to meet it at all costs
Really wouldn't waste your time and money on this one... Read more
Really wouldn't waste your time and money on this one... Read more
Published 7 months ago by gardeningwelshmum
Anti-development ranting from a man with two homes
This is largely a gripping thriller with a more-than-usually accurate description of Oxford. However, the text is peppered with complaints about people daring to build new houses... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2007 by Gordon
A real page-turner
Highly enjoyable, evocative, and somewhat disturbing. I couldn't believe it when I got to the end - all those pages read uncharacteristically quickly. Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2002
very near the knuckle
Very sinister. A thoroughly nasty villain, an all-too-credible plot, particularly in the light of recent world events, and fast moving. Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2002
excellent, atmospheric
Not since Inspector Morse bit the dust has there been a better evocation of Oxford in fiction, here as the setting for a bizarre reoccurrence of the Black Death. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2002
Good idea - but no depth
Cold-war thrillers are a dying breed - but no one told that to Peter Millar. The idea of the plague reappearing in modern-day Oxford is intriguing, but ultimately it takes second... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2002
Gripping
I read this book on a flight from Cape Town to London and the time flew. Superbly written, tense, full of twists and turns, I was so engrossed that I did not bother with the movies... Read more
Published on 7 Jun 2001
Credible plot and good setting
We in the 21st centurytend to believe that we are winning the battle against disease. But are we. The plague, the horror of the Middle Ages, returns in this novel with enough... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2001
All too credible!
From the opening with a murder in Miami to the unexpected climax, this book really grabbed me. Especially trying to work out what the prologue had to do with the rest of it. Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2001
Believable thriller in atmospheric Oxford
The 14th century black death returns to 21st century Oxford because of modern man's bungling - a worryingly credible plot with a nasty underlying theme. Read more
Published on 14 Jan 2001
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