A Ring of Roses
A Ring of Roses is also known as A Wreath of Roses.
An English boy of nine disappears from a train travelling through East Germany. Restored to his parents a few days later, he develops a ring of rose-like spots on his chest... sure symptoms of bubonic plague.
To prevent a world epidemic, East and West work together, tracing the boy's contacts through the maze of divided Germany... but to little effect.
Then Sir Marcus Levin, an unorthodox bacteriologist, stumbles on a book of medieval folk-lore...
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John Blackburn
John Fenwick Blackburn (1923–1993) was a British novelist who wrote thrillers, horror novels, and The Flame and the Wind (1967), an unusual historical novel set in Roman times, in which a nephew of Pontius Pilate tries to discover the facts about the crucifixion of Jesus.
His horror novels are often structured as thrillers, with detective story plots involving international espionage, but leading to a supernatural resolution. This means that, as with some of the books of James Herbert, many of Blackburn's horror novels are notable for pace and plotting rather than for atmospheric effects. Blackburn specialised in mixing modern concerns such as germ warfare and international conspiracies with ancient traditions and curses, often to ingenious effect.
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