A review by betsychadwell
Flu: The Story Of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It by Gina Kolata

4.0

The title is a little bit of a misnomer. It's not so much a history of the pandemic -- just a portion of the first chapter is devoted to that -- as a history of the efforts of scientists subsequent to the actual pandemic to understand where it came from and why it was so lethal. As many as 100 million killed worldwide. The book is also frustrating, because it ends without any resolution to those questions, but with a tease that results are just around the corner. It was published in 1999, so I'm hoping there may be something more recent that may provide some answers.

That said, it was a very good read. Well written, compelling, almost like a detective story, with interesting characters throughout. A reasonable amount of technical biological detail about the virus was handled well. Not too heavy for a non-scientist.