In the middle of a pandemic, would you read a book about something similar? While this novel in many ways mirrors our lives at the moment, in others it’s a whole different fish.

The year is 2025. An emergency department in Scotland sees men whose flu-like symptoms escalate rapidly out of control, leaving the treating doctors powerless. Amanda Maclean is one of those doctors. When more cases emerge, she senses that there is a viral outbreak impending. Her alerts are ignored.

Catherine is an anthropologist in London. The virus – now dubbed the Plague – is killing 90 per cent of men through a genetic weakness, while leaving women asymptomatic. Could Catherine prevent her husband and son becoming infected?

These two women are the main focus of the narrative, but other multiple perspectives (too many perhaps?) also feature. The time span of the novel covers seven years of the Plague, from its first appearance to the finding of a vaccine and the world’s slow recovery.

This is a great ‘what if?’ novel, pondering how the world would look if 90 per cent of men were removed. With sexual abuse, domestic violence and other patriarchal power imbalances very topical, it’s tempting to say that this would be no great loss. The new female-dominated world is better designed and more collegiate, but is no utopia.

The narrative is fast paced and covers a lot of territory. Sweeney-Baird reaps the benefit of forward thinking, postulating how the world might look in the Plague’s aftermath. The book is not without its flaws, but shows an acute mind dissecting a disturbing scenario with flair.

Reviewed by Bob Moore