Vermonter Ruth Wilmarth faces her worst nightmare yet in Wright's gloomy fifth mystery (after 2002's Stolen Honey) starring the courageous and resilient amateur sleuth. Not only does the dread disease of the title threaten her small herd of cows and calves but first a few and then a small horde of Irish visitors, relatives of her lover, Colm, descend on her farm. The hate and prejudice that follow the Irish is fueled by one of their number, the abusive Ritchie, who arrives with his sick wife, Nola, to persuade his brother, Darren, to return to his uncle's farm in New York. But it's the threat of mad cow disease perhaps carried by two healthy-looking calves Ruth bought and the possibility Nola carries the human form of it that bring out the worst in everyone. A disappearance, a death and a race against time ensue. Sometimes energized, sometimes overwhelmed, Ruth swings between anger and despair at the unfairness of a potential "plague" ruining all that she holds dear. Only the support Ruth receives from friends and family relieves the tale's bleakness.

Agent, Alison Picard. (Apr. 18) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.