The Demon in the Freezer, Richard Preston
The Demon in the Freezer, Richard Preston
21 Rating(s)
List: $17.95 | Sale: $12.57
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The Demon in the Freezer
A True Story

Author: Richard Preston

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 8 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/13/2002


Synopsis

“The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines.”—Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy

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.

About Richard Preston

Richard Preston has written nine books, including The Hot Zone, The Demon in the Freezer, and The Wild Trees. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages, and most of them have first appeared as articles in The New Yorker. Preston has won numerous awards, including the American Institute of Physics Award and the National Magazine Award. He’s also the only person not a medical doctor ever to receive the Centers for Disease Control’s Champion of Prevention Award for public health. An asteroid is named “Preston” after him. (Asteroid Preston is a ball of rock three miles in diameter, traveling on a wild orbit near Mars.) Richard Preston lives outside New York City with his wife, Michelle. They have three children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on March 22, 2023

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. I expect the end of the world, the people part of it in any case, is likeliest to be the result of loose pathogens. In Demon in the Freezer, published in 2002, Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event takes a look at two of the......more

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on March 29, 2020

Smallpox and anthrax are just the 2 main protagonists of this novel, but there are many others out there, some unknown or still to evolve. One has to look at the potential quantity (not quality lol, they nearly killed themselves because of incompetence) of the Soviet biowarfare program [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on March 15, 2016

This book is terrifying! I wish it was fiction . . . I spent the entire book itching and squirming. The descriptions of small pox are harrowing - not for the faint of heart (if I recall, there are some pictures too). But, it is riveting, so if you like a good non-fiction thriller that might make you......more

Goodreads review by Chris on March 14, 2024

I have previously read Preston's nonfiction [The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus|16213] and was fascinated by the previously unknown to me Ebola virus and then his novel [The Cobra Event|376613] a bioterrorism thriller, another great read. This 2002 nonfiction i......more

Goodreads review by Jenbebookish on October 14, 2024

Wooeeeee!! This was everything I wanted it to be and more!!!! • • I have a bit of a morbid curiosity/fascination with epidemiology & viruses, specifically the real bastards of the bunch. You know, your basic Ebola, Marburg, Small Pox, Bubonic Plague, HIV. Even just our run of the mill Influenza is fasc......more


Quotes

“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.”—Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague

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.”—Jonathan Weiner, author of The Beak of the Finch

Praise for The Hot Zone

“One of the most horrifying things I’ve ever read in my whole life. What a remarkable piece of work. I devoured it in two or three sittings, and have a feeling the memories will linger a long time.”—Stephen King

“A tour de force . . . Preston uses the power of simple narrative to drive deep his story’s urgent truths.”Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Utterly engrossing . . . Will make your blood curdle.”The Washington Post Book World