An outbreak of typhoid was a constant threat in the early 1900s, especially within the teeming population of New York City. Two new books address this dreaded menace: Terrible Typhoid Mary (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17.99) by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary (Calkins Creek, $16.95) by Gail Jarrow. The former book focuses on the search and subsequent questionable treatment of the source of the 1906 outbreak, a cook who was an asymptomatic carrier of the dangerous disease. The latter volume is a comprehensive narrative of the American experience of the epidemic, and includes intriguing insets and photographs that expand upon the stark reality of the “fatal fever.” With differing approaches, both books tell the fascinating true story of this health threat and its initial manifestation in a single individual. Ages 11-14