Fever is a historical fiction book about the life of Typhoid Mary.

Based on the true life story of an Irish immigrant arrested for passing on typhoid even though she was healthy in New York at the turn of the century, it is an enjoyable read and a wonderful look at life of the time.

Mary Mallon is written as a strong Irish woman, who doesn't understand how she could be a carrier of a disease she doesn't have, and who fights against her imprisonment and for her career as a cook.

Author Mary Beth Keane paints a sympathetic picture of this much-maligned woman branded as a murderer and builds a bridge into the past that is at once as compelling as it is authentic.

Verdict: Fever is one of those books that unfolds as you read it like scenes from a movie - it will enthral you from beginning to end.

Fever by Mary Beth Keane is published by Simon & Schuster, $24.99.

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