In the Book of Revelations, the Four Horsemen herald the arrival of the Apocalypse. When the First Horseman thunders forth, pestilence will spread throughout the land.

For the First Horseman is Plague. . . .

With the highly acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Genesis Code, John Case gave us a compelling, chillingly plausible novel of suspense that readers devoured in one sitting. Now Case once again combines cutting-edge science with political intrigue in a thriller even more terrifying--a journey into a nightmare so frighteningly believable that it might just happen tomorrow.

The Spanish Flu killed forty million people worldwide in 1918. Now, with history threatening to repeat itself, a scientific expedition speeds toward a remote island in the Arctic Sea to recover strains of the lethal virus preserved under layers of ice.

For Washington Post reporter Frank Daly, it is the story of a lifetime. But his plan to join the expedition is ruined by a ferocious storm that delays him. And when he meets up with the ship upon its return to port in Norway, it is clear that something has gone terribly wrong.

Fear haunts the faces of the crew. No one will talk. And someone wants Daly to stop asking questions.

But if there's a wall around the facts, Daly will batter it down. Persistent and resourceful, he knows how to get answers when none are given. Yet the more he uncovers, the more dangerous the stakes become. Until at last he comes face-to-face with a shocking secret, pitching him into a harrowing race to prevent nothing less than . . . apocalypse.

Gripping, heartpounding, The First Horseman hurtles through jolting twists of plot to reveal an enemy as ominous as the darkest prophecy. A knockout thriller, here is a novel of unrelenting suspense you will find hard to put down--and even harder to forget.

• fiction