Amerithrax: The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer [Hardcover]

Robert Graysmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2003

Who was the anthrax killer?
Six days after the 9/11 attacks, a new terror began to spread...

September 17, 2001: A Florida tabloid receives a love letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez. The paper's photo editor opens it--and, unknowingly, inhales thousands of toxic spores. By 10/5 he's dead.

October 12, 2001: NBC anchor Tom Brokaw's assistant tests positive for cutaneous anthrax, a result of exposure to a powder in an envelope she inhaled three weeks before.

In the days that followed, 28 more people tested positive for anthrax, plunging an entire country into the frontlines of an insidious bioterror.

The anthrax war had begun.

This is the most comprehensive work to date about the plague of terror that arose in the wake of 9/11--and the relentless scientific manhunt to answer the question of who the anthrax killer was.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Graysmith is the national bestselling author of Zodiac, Zodiac Unmasked, The Murder of Bob Crane, and The Sleeping Lady.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (November 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425191907
• ISBN-13: 978-0425191903
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,476,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars National Preparedness BioDefense, October 8, 2007

By 

Jonathan Morrone (Lexington Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amerithrax: The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer (Paperback)

I work in biological counter-terrorism and I found this book to be extremely helpful to better my understanding of the mail based attacks that took place in September and October of 2001.
Interestingly , I discovered that my company's product the Mail Defender was mentioned on page 411 of the hard copy.
One point the book makes is that is extremely difficult if not impossible to unmask the predator, while the United States mail system still remains the most open and largest distribution system in the world.
Please feel free to contact me anytime by email to discuss.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs editing or a screenwriter, June 19, 2007

By 

Bookworm girl (Medford, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amerithrax: The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer (Paperback)

I was attracted to this book because I enjoyed the movie "Zodiac", (which was written by screenwriter James Vanderbilt) and I thought the Robert Graysmith criminal element may prove interesting.

Sadly Graysmith had few cohesive thoughts in the book. It bounces around far too much from the death of Bob Stevens, to Mohammed Atta, NBC, Homeland Security, the CDC and back to AMI among others. The aforementioned are all critical to the story. When there is a gap in time and with such a detailed story it would have been better had it been tighter.

Graysmith has not turned out to be my favorite author. But, when it comes to movies based on his original writing, such as "Zodiac" or commentary he provides on the Autofocus DVD discussing the investigation into the murder of Bob Crane, I have become a fan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but too long, July 31, 2008

By 

Mark Wuschke "Noumea" (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amerithrax: The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer (Paperback)

Not living in America, I knew relatively little about the Anthrax killer, so the story was new to me.

Its strengths are the detailed review of the facts of the case, and the telling of the general history of biological warfare since WW2. It also tells us about the unfortunate victims and their terrible suffering.

The trouble is, it tries to weave too many different things into a single narrative, which gets confusing. There is a lot of back tracking, and the story is interrupted constantly by anecdotes about Soviet, American, and Iraqi anthrax factories, previous anthrax leaks, the Una bomber, and various other mail-crimes, some of which are repetitive and not terribly relevant.

I did like the book tho, it sent a chill up my spine more than once. Consider the fact that several countries now stock enough anthrax bombs to kill every person on earth! Terrifying when you think about it.