'Isn’t madness,’ he asked, ‘one of the possibilities we’ve been talking about?’

When top government scientist, Professor Howard Juniper, goes missing it’s not simply a missing persons case. At the height of the Cold War, Juniper has been researching and developing biological weapons. Thought to be carrying a biological culture of inconceivable virulence, Juniper must be found… and fast.

Inspector John Appleby is called upon to solve this mystery. Enlisting the help of Howard’s twin brother, Miles, Appleby hatches a plan for Miles to impersonate his brother in order to buy some time. But Appleby has three terrifying leads to follow: has Juniper been kidnapped, has he defected, or has he simply gone mad?

In a case where the stakes could not be higher, Appleby races from boarding schools to remote islands in order to find the missing scientist before humanity itself is lost.

This taut and suspenseful mystery explores the terror surrounding the potential rapid spread and effect of viruses. Hare Sitting Up was first published in 1959.