Bleak Midwinter

Two weeks before Christmas, Rajiv Mahendra, a trainee doctor at Oxford's John Radcliffe hospital encounters a patient with rare symptoms that are sinisterly familiar. In India, the disease is known as bubonic plague. The last time it occurred on a large scale in Europe, it was known as the Black Death and one third of the population died. Has the bacteria come back to life? And if so, how many will it kill this time?