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Title: The Anthrax Letters: A Medical Detective Story by Leonard A. Cole ISBN: 0-309-08881-X Publisher: Joseph Henry Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.82 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Anthrax - We are so vulnerable!
Comment: Dr. Leonard Cole's "The Anthrax Letters"is a very engaging, in fact gripping, account of the first and uncertain steps that went into the identification of systemic anthrax as the disease responsible for the mysterious illnesses that affected 11 individuals and killed five. The illness appeared out of nowhere and was traced to letters sent from a Newark, New Jersey address. Cole traces the connections through interviews with true-to-life personalities, including disease survivors. It is a medical detective story that captures the high drama of the events and the associated widespread anxieties. This book transcends sophisticated investigative reporting. It gives simple but accurate explanations of the scientific problems involved in producing "weapon grade" anthrax spores, and the techniques required to identify a disease that almost none of the first responders had ever seen before. It also points out our weaknesses in dealing with potential bioterrorism. The book is beautifully written. I think that it will be widely read by concerned members of the public, as well as audiences drawn from law enforcement, government, and science.
Paul Talalay MD, Professor of Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205. email: [email protected]
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping, Moving, Important....A Very Significant Book
Comment: One great terrorism event of 2001, the attacks of September 11th, remains seared into America's national memory...as well it should. But another deadly deed, which unfolded just a few days later, seems to be rapidly receding from the foreground: the anthrax letters. In this powerful new book, Dr. Leonard Cole persuasively lays out a case why this act of bioterrorism should not be forgotten.
Dr. Cole's book is, as the subtitle suggests, a true medical detective story. It took great insight and certain leaps of faith for the first health professionals who confronted this situation to recognize it for what it was. Anthrax in humans was, and fortunately, is, quite rare. And although there had been hoax letters previously claiming to contain anthrax, it had never actually been transmitted by the U.S. Mail before this incident.
Thanks to exhaustive interviews with the professionals, survivors and families of the victims, Cole is able to present an almost minute-by-minute account of the appearance of the disease, the search for answers, and the aftermath. Although the public health community was the target of much criticism in the hysteria following in the immediate wake of the event, Cole suggests, and rightly so, I believe, that most of the people are truly unsung heroes.
Beyond being a record of a deadly crisis, Cole poses some important questions. Are we better prepared for the next bioterrorist event? The answer is a qualified yes. The scientific and health communities seem to be better informed, and have established important networks of communication and cooperation. But what of the public at large? Here, the signs are not so hopeful.
I must praise this book for another reason: its readability. Cole lays out the science in terms that are crystalline clear. He provides just enough details about people and places to make them living, flesh and blood individuals, not lifeless characters on a page. And I'm sure he practiced admirable restraint in distilling what must have been a massive amount of research into a concise package. Too many writers these days seem to be falling victim to the "file dump" phenomenon--wanting to make sure all their hard work finds its way between covers.
A worthwhile and important book.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Outside the Box Insightful Account of Bioterrorism
Comment: To date there have been eleven reviews of this book on Amazon, with an overall, deserved average of five stars. Unfortunately, Amazon has not provided a SEARCH INSIDE option which otherwise might allow the reader to view additional opinions (that include Richard (The Hot Zone) Preston's ".. a masterful piece of reporting ...", or a peek at the skills Dr. Cole has employed in making this a most delicious read.
Cole is a gifted professional whose narrative ranks with the late Berton Roueche, the man who invented "medical detective" stories in The New Yorker over fifty years ago. Cole has the ability to accurately capture complex scientific facts, to personalize the many individual tragedies surrounding the anthrax letters, and to bring original insight over and above the plodding prose of newspaper accounts. Cole can even make an encounter with a mailbox an exciting adventure!
For those people who enjoy the books by Oliver ( viz. Awakenings) Sacks of people challenged with neurological disease, or Robert S.(viz. New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers) Desowitz's whimsical tales of parasitic infections, or Arlo (viz. Man and Microbes) Karlen's fascinating explorations of infectious disease history, Cole's most recent book certainly ranks with these authors. I hope that he continues to provide us with additional narratives of medical detection, given his proven scientific knowledge, demonstrated humanity, and Holmesian gift of assiduous investigation.
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Title: The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed by Marilyn W. Thompson ISBN: 006052278X Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Amerithrax: The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer by Robert Graysmith ISBN: 0425191907 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak by Jeanne Guillemin ISBN: 0520229177 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 05 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Biowarrior: Inside the Soviet/Russian Biological War Machine by Igor V. Domaradskij, Wendy Orent, Judith Miller ISBN: 159102093X Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Spores, Plagues and History: The Story of Anthrax by Chris Holmes ISBN: 1930754450 Publisher: Durban House Publishing Company, Inc. Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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