The causes and nature of the Great Plague are still being debated. Frandsen (history, University of Copenhagen) feels that most of the plagues from the fifth to the nineteenth century are a form of Yesinia pestis. However, the course of the disease in the Baltic region, particularly Denmark is the main focus of his study. Using a wealth of records, he investigates the journey of the plague of 1709-1713 through Poland, Estonia, Finland and Sweden to Denmark and from there to Germany. Concentrating particularly on the town of Ellsinore, he charts the location of homes that were attacked by the plague, the number who died, their age and gender as recorded over the length of the worst infection. His conclusions contain a summary of the random nature of the contagion. He also looks at the efforts made by officials to contain the disease and concludes that, when they finally acted, the strictures on quarantine and travel were effective. The careful statistics given, often by street or parish, will be of tremendous help to others studying the mysterious sporadic appearances of the disease. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)