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Black Death
When a deadly, flesh-eating bacteria rises from a forgotten grave, the people of Half Moon begin to die in agony from what comes to be known as the Black Death, a highly contagious disease for which there is no known cure. Original.
- GenresHorror
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1988
4 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
R. Karl Largent
25 books10 followersR. Karl Largent, a.k.a. Robin Karl or Simon Lawrence, is an author, lecturer, and columnist who teaches writing at Tri-State University. Before launching his writing career, he spent 30 years in industry, the last 17 as VP of Marketing for a Fortune 500 multinational. A former horse show judge and trainer of youth horses, he competed in SCCA road racing events, flew as a weather observer in the USAF, completed a tour of duty in the Arctic and served with the U.S. Weather Bureau.
R. Karl Largent is the author of over 600 columns. He has also authored nearly two dozen novels including the bestselling "Red" series. He has also written six non-fiction books as well as numerous articles for magazines, newspapers and other publications.
R. Karl Largent is the author of over 600 columns. He has also authored nearly two dozen novels including the bestselling "Red" series. He has also written six non-fiction books as well as numerous articles for magazines, newspapers and other publications.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 29, 2023
Black Death is more of a medical thriller than horror, but as people die from a flesh-eating bacteria that turns them to a puddle of black goo in minutes, I guess horror will do for the genre! This starts with a prologue, circa 1855, where some French immigrant in a logging camp along the Ohio river falls ill, and when he wakes up the rest of the people in the camp are simply piles of cloths with some black goo. This has happened before; the French name call it Le Mal, and the immigrant is a carrier of the dread disease. Flash forward to 1976 and the novel starts in the sleepy town of Half Moon, Indiana. Largent subdivided Black Death into days, and the bulk of the story takes place in just a week. You guessed it-- Le Mal is back! Of course, the main protagonist Rusty (a deputy in town) has no idea what is going on and also of course, things go from bad to worse...
This was a fun read, but nothing very serious or scary, unless you worry about such diseases! Largent's prose is abrupt and he spends very little time on developing characters. As a medical thriller, it is fairly predictable; once the cops and docs realize that it is a disease killing people, they have to find the vector. I was looking for something lite and this fit the bill, and I also wanted to try out Largent. I will give some of his other novels a go after this. 3 black gooey stars!
This was a fun read, but nothing very serious or scary, unless you worry about such diseases! Largent's prose is abrupt and he spends very little time on developing characters. As a medical thriller, it is fairly predictable; once the cops and docs realize that it is a disease killing people, they have to find the vector. I was looking for something lite and this fit the bill, and I also wanted to try out Largent. I will give some of his other novels a go after this. 3 black gooey stars!
February 22, 2021
A pretty nice small town under siege from an unknown disease horror novel. There is plenty of eyeball popping, flesh melting eviscerating action here. The only problem was that the ending fell flat. Seems like the author had nowhere else to go, so he ends it. Other than that, this was one hell of a book.
This pulls no punches. We start out with a mother checking in with her married son. What she finds is a pile of black goo running out of clothes. More people find similar fates and The Department Of Health, then the National Guard are called in to try and get a handle on the situation. Pretty high body count too.
This pulls no punches. We start out with a mother checking in with her married son. What she finds is a pile of black goo running out of clothes. More people find similar fates and The Department Of Health, then the National Guard are called in to try and get a handle on the situation. Pretty high body count too.
January 30, 2012
Passable yarn about a plague that resurfaces in a Southern Indiana town after a century of lying dormant in the soil. Largent does a solid job with characterization, but the reader almost needs a scorecard to keep everyone straight. The plot has merit and consistency. The protagonist is a solid, salt-of-the-earth deputy who does everything he can to save the people of his little town. Is he up for more than he can handle? Not the best horror I've read, but it's a quick read. The story does have a believable and conclusive ending.
June 23, 2014
I read this book the day after I attended Karl Largent's writing seminar at the Lake County Public Library in Merriville, Indiana. I always believed this novel would make an awesome movie. It's about a town that a plague is killing people in a very unique way. I recommend reading all of his horror novels. Karl was one of my first mentors in the writing field.
December 27, 2021
It’s odd, but there’s something about this book that almost seems quaint and old-fashioned. Sure, it’s about a disease that eviscerates people’s bodies, turning them into puddles of goo all while causing massive amounts of pain. And it has a cover that depicts what looks like a zombie with a white skull and only a little bit of muscle left around its jaw. And there are some backseat shenanigans and plenty of grimy small town dramatics involved as well.
So I don’t know if it’s that the violence all seems anesthetized with descriptions of death nowhere near as agonizing as they could be. Or that the characters, simple as they may be, are all enjoyable enough to help establish a likeable and effective small town environment. But there’s a naivete here, an unsureness about the writing like the author didn’t quite know how to bring his vision to life but was going to try his damnedest anyway (and this does appear to be the author’s first novel).
Yet for as fun as the whole thing can be at times, it’s not really a very good book. There are numerous gaps in the story where major events happen, oftentimes major characters die, that are never fully explained. I kept expecting flashbacks to fill in some of the missing info, but they don’t. There are several instances where someone dies–amidst the outbreak of a fast-spreading disease, mind you–and no one, not even the authorities, bothers to tell others about it. They just cover up the body and go about their business.
And the overall story is narratively and tonally inconsistent. I somewhat appreciate that it throws some curveballs at readers like when the stereotypical psychic doesn’t merely do the stereotypical psychic thing. But there are too many elements that don’t fit together: body horror, psychics and unconsecrated ground, hidden town secrets, villainous monologues tinged with gothic edges pitted against rural dialect, critiques of ravenous reporters, and ill-fated government lockdowns. Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see more tales that combine disparate parts and branch out from the ordinary, but few of these things are developed the way they should be, and everything here feels incomplete.
So I don’t know if it’s that the violence all seems anesthetized with descriptions of death nowhere near as agonizing as they could be. Or that the characters, simple as they may be, are all enjoyable enough to help establish a likeable and effective small town environment. But there’s a naivete here, an unsureness about the writing like the author didn’t quite know how to bring his vision to life but was going to try his damnedest anyway (and this does appear to be the author’s first novel).
Yet for as fun as the whole thing can be at times, it’s not really a very good book. There are numerous gaps in the story where major events happen, oftentimes major characters die, that are never fully explained. I kept expecting flashbacks to fill in some of the missing info, but they don’t. There are several instances where someone dies–amidst the outbreak of a fast-spreading disease, mind you–and no one, not even the authorities, bothers to tell others about it. They just cover up the body and go about their business.
And the overall story is narratively and tonally inconsistent. I somewhat appreciate that it throws some curveballs at readers like when the stereotypical psychic doesn’t merely do the stereotypical psychic thing. But there are too many elements that don’t fit together: body horror, psychics and unconsecrated ground, hidden town secrets, villainous monologues tinged with gothic edges pitted against rural dialect, critiques of ravenous reporters, and ill-fated government lockdowns. Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see more tales that combine disparate parts and branch out from the ordinary, but few of these things are developed the way they should be, and everything here feels incomplete.
March 7, 2023
This book started off pretty interesting in 1855 with a plague wiping out a logging camp. That was quite a surprising start. Then, we jump ahead to 1966 to a small town where we meet our main character, Deputy C. L. "Rusty" Bogner. On a side-note, this is interesting since Largent's recurring hero in many of his books is T.C. Bogner. Could Rusty be T.C.'s father?
That said, as the mysterious plague starts to take lives in the town, it is up to Bogner and the town leaders to try to locate the source of this plague. This is where the mystery works and is very good.
But, I felt a big let down by the ending we are given. It's not clearly explained how the plague was spread by the true source.
Another interesting note, in the Epilogue to this story, we are introduced to a writer by the name of Elliot Grant Wages, which is another recurring hero of Largent's books. So, I was interested in how this book connected the two universes of Bogner and Wages, but it's never spelled out.
That said, as the mysterious plague starts to take lives in the town, it is up to Bogner and the town leaders to try to locate the source of this plague. This is where the mystery works and is very good.
But, I felt a big let down by the ending we are given. It's not clearly explained how the plague was spread by the true source.
Another interesting note, in the Epilogue to this story, we are introduced to a writer by the name of Elliot Grant Wages, which is another recurring hero of Largent's books. So, I was interested in how this book connected the two universes of Bogner and Wages, but it's never spelled out.
May 11, 2019
Black Death was when R. Karl Largent was at the peak of his icky bug writing. A brutally infectious organism strikes from a graveyard and mayhem ensues.
I read this twenty-seven years ago, but just now got around to reviewing it as I go through my library (as of 2015). I loved this creepy story and it was one of the reasons I hold Largent as one of the top icky bug writers of the 20th century.
I just wish there were more stories like this out there. Even today, a quarter of a decade later, it’s rare to find these type stories on the shelf at the only bookstore chain in town. When I do see one, I scarf it up right away.
R. Karl Largent was a master at his craft and I miss him a lot.
Highly recommended.
I read this twenty-seven years ago, but just now got around to reviewing it as I go through my library (as of 2015). I loved this creepy story and it was one of the reasons I hold Largent as one of the top icky bug writers of the 20th century.
I just wish there were more stories like this out there. Even today, a quarter of a decade later, it’s rare to find these type stories on the shelf at the only bookstore chain in town. When I do see one, I scarf it up right away.
R. Karl Largent was a master at his craft and I miss him a lot.
Highly recommended.
July 16, 2023
Started a bit slow, but quickly sped up and stayed fast. Also, very happy with the unpredictable ending.
August 3, 2023
I feel like the last 100 pages were like phoned in, or he wasn’t sure which way he really wanted to go with it. I was really into this medical thriller for most of it.
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March 30, 2024A plague chronicle.
Black Death concerns an ancient disease that reappears in a small town and how the county and state authorities deal with it. The story reminds me a bit of the recent pandemic, though the fictional sickness is brutal with a 100% mortality rate.
Black Death concerns an ancient disease that reappears in a small town and how the county and state authorities deal with it. The story reminds me a bit of the recent pandemic, though the fictional sickness is brutal with a 100% mortality rate.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews