Pathogen (Why are the children dying?)

Pathogen begins as a medical investigation into an unreported toxin that is causing death among children. A Pathologist gathers case studies and tries to correlate the data in an attempt to find a vector: mice, berries, mosquitoes, etc. that could be infecting a wide disparity of children over different parts of the Country. One adult female has died the same distinctive death. Her husband, a retired police detective, joins the doctor. Slowly, using computer models to solidify their data, their ideas shift from what to whom, until they become sure that a man is indeed the vector.

The early chapters are years apart, with incidents of this new deadly syndrome often unrecognized and poorly reported. The later chapters are compressed in time, as the retired detective, motivated by revenge, and the FBI, race each other to a conclusion. The detective is forced to decide if revenge is enough motivation to continue a child's endangerment.
The scenes of hospital practice, medical conferences, and residency are as accurate as my memory will allow, many taken from personal experience during my own residency and the private practice of medicine. The short references to combat come from my own experience as well.