# Help me Identify this Novel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524 "2010-07-13T14:14:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/1 "2010-07-13T14:14:16Z")
It was one of those books you find on the bookshelf in a B&B. I started reading it, but didn’t get even halfway through before the rest of the family arrived and the reunion took precedence. It’s been about twenty years, and I still occasionally wonder what happened, and how it all ended. I’m usually reminded of it when somebody mentions “The Andromeda Strain”. It was along the same lines, a plane load of people, in which at least one was quite ill, and turned out to have an extremely dangerous bug. The last I remember the plane had been parked on a sheet of ice, and there was talk of just pushing it under the freezing water. Just from the tone of it, I’d guess it was written in the late seventies; one of a bunch in that time period about scary contagious disease. I want to say the illness was hemorrhagic in nature, but don’t really recall. It was probably by a fairly well-known author, but it wasn’t particularly well written. An arresting novel, but not “Literature.” There was exposition about the individuals on the plane, a doctor who I think was the first to get sick, a honeymooning couple, a veteran air hostess trying to keep the peace. . . Anybody remember it? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/2 "2010-07-14T15:25:52Z")
Man, nothing? Has this ever happened before? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/3 "2010-07-14T15:32:24Z")
Doesn’t ring a bell, but if you want to read another good biomedical-emergency book, Richard Preston’s nonfiction _The Hot Zone_ is very worthwhile. The movie _Outbreak_ with Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman and Renee Russo is also pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/4 "2010-07-14T16:24:56Z")
I’m thinking along the lines of Robin Cook, but I’m not sure he’s been writing that long. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/5 "2010-07-14T18:07:53Z")
I tried asking my sister who reads medical thrillers, but she says it’s not ringing any bells. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/6 "2010-07-14T18:18:32Z")
[Is this it?](http://www.amazon.com/Pandoras-Clock-John-J-Nance/dp/1840672544/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279131434&sr=8-2) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/7 "2010-07-16T04:34:02Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > [Is this it?](http://www.amazon.com/Pandoras-Clock-John-J-Nance/dp/1840672544/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279131434&sr=8-2) Pandora’s clock. Written in 1995, but that just might be it. A copy is winging it’s way toward me from the Amazon warehouse, so we’ll soon know. Thank you sooo much! I would have been 50 years from now on my death bed with my final words: “I do wish I’d found out what happened to the poor people on that plane!” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/8 "2010-07-16T05:12:34Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Man, nothing? Has this ever happened before? Yes. Some years ago I wanted to ID a book, and didn’t get a single suggestion. I think I’m gonna give it another shot, inspired by your thread. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/9 "2010-07-16T05:23:01Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Yes. Some years ago I wanted to ID a book, and didn’t get a single suggestion. I think I’m gonna give it another shot, inspired by your thread. Well, I did give it another shot – my own research, and I found the book. Whoo me! But having read a couple of reviews of the book, I see I got some small details wrong that may have led folks astray. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/10 "2010-07-16T05:32:13Z")
Unknown or unremembered books can be found pretty easily through the Google Books search function if you can remember at least a few words that you can enter in the form of an exact quote. I found the name of a book whose title I’d been trying to remember for years just by entering “chrysalis on the underside of a branch of a tree”, which was the only exact line I could remember from the book. (I remembered it because I thought it was poorly written. Imagine my surprise to learn that the author has published five novels, won numerous awards and taught fiction writing at the university level. :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/11 "2010-07-16T13:42:43Z")
I thought the title sounded familiar, but not as a book. It turns out that it was made into a [TV movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115309/) in 1996, with Richard Dean Anderson as the Captain. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-novel/546524/12 "2010-07-17T17:13:35Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Pandora’s clock. Written in 1995, but that just might be it. A copy is winging it’s way toward me from the Amazon warehouse, so we’ll soon know. > > Thank you sooo much! I would have been 50 years from now on my death bed with my final words: “I do wish I’d found out what happened to the poor people on that plane!” Cool, hope that’s it–my google-fu is sometimes strong… 😉