The Book
Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail by Bob Coen and Eric Nadler investigates the anthrax letter scares just after 9/11. Following the trail of the anthrax bacterium, the authors find themselves looking at the deaths of the accused perpetrators of the attacks as well as the deaths of leading anthrax researchers. The trail of anthrax as a biological weapon leads them from the US labs at Fort Detrick to Porton Down in the UK and on to South Africa and the former Soviet Union.

The Review

I’ve read quite a few books on biological warfare (it’s an interest since I use to work in biomedical research), so I was curious to see what there was to learn about the anthrax attacks of 9/11 after the relative silence of the mass media on the topic. By silence, I mean after the attacks (there was certainly enough hysteria-inducing media coverage during the attacks).

Although the book starts a bit slowly as it establishes the genesis of the authors’ investigation, it soon goes into interesting territory by pulling together disparate parts of the global anthrax story including:

• The incestuous relationships between anthrax biological warfare programs all over the world;
• The curious number of deaths among anthrax researchers worldwide;
• The ownership of major anthrax vaccine installations (if you think it’s in the hands of a Western government or corporation, think again);
• The resurgence in biological weapons research in the name of national security (a lot of it done at university facilities without proper oversight);
• The incredible amount of government and private dollars at stake in said research.

I was familiar with the Soviet Union aspect of anthrax bioweapon research, having read Biohazard by Ken Alibek (who, according to the authors, has now gone back to the former Soviet Union to start a pharmaceutical company–I don’t know about anyone else, but this makes me a little nervous considering his previous career running a Soviet biological weapons program), but I wasn’t familiar with the biological warfare program carried out against the black populace in South Africa as apartheid was falling apart.

The section of the book on “Project Coast” went a long way to explaining the distrust by the black populace of the origin and treatment of AIDS. Some of the opinions in Africa about AIDS that seem unreasonable or uninformed to North Americans make considerably more sense when given the context that biological warfare has been carried out on a racial basis in that region in the past.

The book also has a lot of information about the new wave of “biodefence” research, primarily in the US, which threatens to spark a new biological arms race. This is something that has gone largely unnoticed by the public and needs more exposure.

The authors have uncovered many questions but few answers. They successfully make the case that the story told to the public in the media was not the full story and may not have been the truth at all. This book is an interesting read. You may not want to know the information in this book, but you should know it.

You can find Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail at amazon (US, Canada, UK) as well as other online and retail booksellers.

Addendum: I forgot to mention that this book has both an index and a list of additional reading material by chapter.

The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal, and Murder by Alan S. Cowell documents the events leading up to the radiological poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko two years ago in London’s Millenium Hotel. The story was all over the international news at the time. Alan S. Cowell was the London Bureau Chief of the New York Times and covered the story, which eventually became this book.

This is the type of the book that I usually love. I’ve read quite a few accounts of various espionage services (CSIS, CIA, KGB, Mossad, MI6) as well as accounts of individuals caught up in international intrigue. This is a particular favourite topic of mine, and this book should have been a slam-dunk favourite. It wasn’t.

It is not the subject, but Cowell’s approach that is off-putting. Instead of allowing events and players to demonstrate the historic aspects of the poisoning, Cowell insists on reminding the reader that it is historic — frequently. In addition to being repetitious, it leads me to conclude the exact opposite: that the incident wasn’t so historic since the events and people can’t be trusted to speak for themselves.

There are also many details included that distracted from the narrative. There is no need to include information such as the beverage consumed at an interview or the clothes an interviewee wore unless it is pertinent (it isn’t). This is particularly frustrating because there are a lot of people to keep track of in this narrative, which is hard enough without extraneous information.

Most frustrating are Cowell’s interjections as to what he imagines, with 20/20 hindsight, people are thinking or feeling at particular times in the timeline. These are things that Cowell has no way of knowing and these speculations don’t offer any insight into the events in any case.

Terminal Spy is marketed as a “page-turning narrative,” and it might have been were it not bogged down in details. If you can read around the details, there is interesting history here. I’ll be passing on my copy to the military historian of the family to see what he can make of it.

Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason by Russell Shorto is an examination of how we got to where we are today by looking at the travels of the bones from Renee Descartes. To refresh the memory of anyone who needs it, Renee Descartes is the philosopher who said “I think, therefore I am,” and used that as his starting point for figuring out the world instead of what he was told by authority figures (at the time, these were primarily the church and royalty).

The publisher calls it “a grand and strange history of the 350-year-long debate between religion and science.”

I quite enjoyed Descartes’ Bones. Shorto did a good job of keeping to the history and not making value judgments on the beliefs that are part of this history. This is not a philosophy book, but a history book. The word skeletal in the subtitle is not only a description of the physical bones, but of the depth of history presented. While some see that as a weakness, I think this book fills a need. Many people need a brief introduction to the history of faith versus science and would be turned off by a deep examination of the philosophical conflicts. Using Descartes’ bones as the scaffolding for this introduction is a way to make the history accessible and interesting to readers who otherwise would never touch a book on the topic.

If you’re already aware of Descartes’ influence on modern thought, then this book is likely not for you unless you are interested in how his bones were used as relics throughout the centuries. If you don’t know what Descartes’ philosophies have to do with the conflict between faith and science, then Descartes’ Bones is a brief, readable introduction.

I am a sucker for spy story, particularly if that spy story is true. Throw in a Canadian connection and you’ve got my attention. I’m pleased to add Delusion: The True Story of Victorian Superspy Henri Le Caron by Peter Edwards to my collection. The story and the craft don’t disappoint:

The story is one that is not taught in any school history books I was ever exposed to, which is a shame because if interesting history like this was taught in school there wouldn’t be so many people who shudder at the thought of picking up anything history-related. The superspy in question is Thomas Beach, British by birth. His adopted name is Henri Le Caron and he ends up in the United States spying for both the British and the Canadians as he infiltrates Irish revolutionary groups to the highest levels. There are plots to invade Canada and trade it to the British for Ireland, the development of terrorist methods recognizable from the current news, betrayal, adultery, alcoholic prime ministers, double agents, and more.

Peter Edwards does an excellent job of both research and translating that research into an interesting read. Edwards chose not to create dialogue for the book so as not to invent what any of these people would say. This choice works very well because the snippets of writing from newspaper reports and personal papers that he uses to give each of the people a voice better than imagined dialogue. The research into the times as well as the individuals helps solidify the world in which Henri Le Caron was operating.
Each chapter starts with a quote which shows up at some point in the chapter. The quotes are well chosen and I’ve started a new chapter more than once because of them.

… he was the last person in the world you would take for a deep conspirator, and a constructor of murder. —Henri Le Caron describes a future American ambassador

This book has a lot of footnotes, which are collected at the back of the book. I found this a bit distracting as I had to flip to the back of the book each time I wanted to see what factoid Edwards had provided or what source a startling fact had come from. I would have preferred to have them at the bottom of each page so that I could either read or ignore them as I went along instead of paging to the back (something I rarely do because I lose my place in the book). This is a small complaint—I’m sure there are readers out there who prefer this arrangement, but I’m just not one of them

This was an interesting read and I learned a lot of about the intertwined history of Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Britain. It will appeal to anyone who likes true spy stories, intrigue between nations, or the just an interesting read.

Peter Edwards is also the author of One Dead Indian: The Premier, the Police, and the Ipperwash Crisis; A Mother’s Story with Joyce Milgaard; and The Encyclopedia of Canadian Organized Crime: From Captain Kidd to Mom Boucher (with Michel Auger).