The Contaminant

by Leonard Reiffel

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Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Leonard Reiffel (born September 30, 1927) is an American physicist, author and educator. Born in Chicago, Reiffel was an electrical engineering student for a number of years before entering into research fields; he has since collaborated with Enrico Fermi, Carl Sagan and members of Operation Paperclip.

Reiffel has also worked for NASA and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and has won a Peabody Award for his work on the radio program The World Tomorrow.

Reviews

[J McEvoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The new head of the Joint Chiefs discovers mysterious appropriations in the defence budget which he follows to a project called M-10 - a plot to introduce cancer causing agents into the USSR and kill millions of Soviet citizens. Once the plot is discovered to be real and already half-completed events spiral into nuclear brinkmanship between the enraged Soviets and the outgoing US President who is being harried by a hawkish President-elect.

Interesting and quite gripping cold war thriller, something of a departure from the usual fare in that it depicts the US as at least equally culpable in a horrifying train of events. The ending is a cop-out but to be expected as such plots are always subject to political censorship, East or West.

[Tracey Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in about five days. It had a bit of a slow start, but rapidly drew me in. It is a real page-turner. It was interesting to read a thriller written before the advent of cell phones and the internet. However, there was one glaring plot hole that consistently bothered me. While I know that in times of international crisis where nuclear war is a real possibility, the President, Vice President and others would be separated to hopefully ensure a succession of powers in the event of the President's demise, in this story, the Vice President was not even a minor character. Other than that, I enjoyed the story very much.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Cold War story in which unknown forces, probably the USA, have unleashed a population destroying pathogen on the Soviet Union. The problem is that the project is hidden so well that the president and the military have no record. What might happen when the secret is dropped on a unsuspecting world? How will both sides react and will it lead to Armageddon? The buildup is good, but the conclusion is not unexpected. A good read for those who like conspiracies.

[Venkataragavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

50 years nearly since this was published. The novel renders a brutal insight into how anarchy materializes, told through a fantastical plot of biomedical warfare between the USA and the USSR. I loved the ending, although I should have foresighted it, in hindsight!

[Sarja · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author succeeds at building the tension and the prose is good enough to keep you reading, but in the end I have to consider this mainstream trash from the kiosk.

Can't really recommend it, I'm afraid.