The Demon In The Freezer: Summary and book reviews of The Demon In The Freezer by Richard Preston, plus links to an excerpt from The Demon In The Freezer and a biography of Richard Preston.
The Demon In The Freezer
by Richard Preston
Hardcover: Oct 2002,
256 pages.
Paperback: Aug 2003,
304 pages.
The first major bioterror event in the United States--the anthrax attacks in October 2001--was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.
Peter Jahrling, the top scientist at Usamriid, a wry virologist who cut his teeth on Ebola, one of the world’s most lethal emerging viruses, has ORCON security clearance that gives him access to top secret information on bioweapons. His most urgent priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox--and win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers--at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all vaccines.
Usamriid went into a state of Delta Alert on September 11 and activated its emergency response teams when the first anthrax letters were opened in New York and Washington, D.C. Preston reports, in unprecedented detail, on the government’s response to the attacks and takes us into the ongoing FBI investigation. His story is based on interviews with top-level FBI agents and with Dr. Steven Hatfill.
Jahrling is leading a team of scientists doing controversial experiments with live smallpox virus at CDC. Preston takes us into the lab where Jahrling is reawakening smallpox and explains, with cool and devastating precision, what may be at stake if his last bold experiment fails.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
... a flair for teasing out, without overstatement, the drama in his inherently compelling topics, plus a prose style that's simple and forceful, make this book as exciting as the best thrillers, yet scarier by far, for Preston's pages deal with clear, present and very real dangers.
Library Journal
In an account that might well be called Return of the Hot Zone, Preston sends out alarms that smallpox could reenter our midst and what's worse, in genetically engineered form.
Kirkus Reviews
Preston guides us deftly on another scary excursion (Hot Zone, 1994) into the world of really bad viruses—this time smallpox, with a side helping of anthrax....Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from microscopic infectious agents? Welcome to Mr. Preston’s frightening neighborhood.
Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy
The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines.
Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague
Richard Preston has brought us another book that reads like a top-notch thriller. Would that it were fiction. As the movie unfolds in your mind, remember this It can happen here.
Jonathan Weiner, author of The Beak of the Finch The Demon in the Freezer is fascinating, frightening, and important. It reads like a thriller, but the demons are real. Richard Preston has a ‘black patent’ on this kind of reporting and storytelling. He is the only writer on the scene who can make the inside story of biological weapons so darkly entertaining. Read this book and pray that its heroes can lock the demon back in the freezer.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Kimbra Waste Of Money This is the most boring book I have ever read. No suspense, just a biography of smallpox. If you're looking to do a research paper on smallpox, this is the perfect book for you! If you're looking for an interesting and graphic book about people... Read More
Rated of 5
by Selena My View On This Book I feel that this book was very well written and good in general because it shows the truth scientifically. I do have to read this book as it relates to school and the study of viruses. In conclusion, very well written and I recommend this book to... Read More
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Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy
of 5
by Kimbra
of 5
by Selena
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