The Demon in the Freezer

A True Story

By: Richard Preston

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

“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 number-one New York Times best seller, 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 US 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.

©2002 Richard Preston (P)2002 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

“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)

Exceptional book

what I love about this book is the fact that you can take the time and listen carefully to that what is scientific community has to say about viruses it explains in great detail what other communities are doing to eradicate some of the viruses and how some of the other scientific community want to stop it it also brings to light how the government are working on biohazard weapons it is important that you listen carefully and you can understand the importance of information and vaccines.

it's incredible

The information is incredibly informative, shocking, and sad. It is information that is horrorifing. The potentially of biological warfare and lethality of small pox and other deadly viruses is sobering. Since this book is based in facts, I only felt grief in realizing that humanity is insistent on self destruction.

Interesting and eye opening

Insight in the operating procedure of the CDC and WHO and what a weaponized pathogen has done and can do in the wrong hands. Well performed and reads more like a novel than a tech book. Creditworthy

A Great Listen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Recommend this to all Medical Research Scientists like myself. It really opens your mind to a lot of things you never thought about. I really enjoyed every bit of it, not forgetting a great narrator too (Paul Boehmer).

Any additional comments?

Need more books like this.

Read the Hard Cover

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Read the hard cover years ago while in the Army as a Nuclear Biological Chemical Officer and though I would re'listen' to it again because I was bored. The Hot Zone is soooo much better.

I recommend

Narrator was great. Easy to understand. Story was fascinating. So much good and terrifying information. I recommend!

Great infectious disease book!

Loved this book, I preferred the parts about small pox to anthrax but I also am a sucker for public health and infectious diseases!

Where can I get a blue space suit?

Okay, now I'm more paranoid than ever that humanity will be ravaged by a super virus. This book is gripping. Not just because the story is true, but because it is extremely well told.

super terrifying

wow. dont start this before bed... not only will this book put the absolute fear of bioterror in you, but it is difficult to put down. far more sinister than any fiction, this book weaves the history of smallpox, anthrax, and 9/11. i'm a physician and had little education on smallpox, a simply horrific disease. bottom line, the averaqe american lives in ignorant bliss... and i'm not a fear mongering conservative.

Awesome read

Read this years ago, and it felt relevant during this time of COVID. As bad as COVID is, smallpox could be much worse. Excellent book and reading.