The Hot Zone In October of l989, Macaque monkeys, housed at the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, began dying from a mysterious disease at an alarming rate. The monkeys, imported from the Philippines, were to be sold as laboratory animals. Twenty-nine of a shipment of one hundred died within a month. Dan Dalgard, the veterinarian who cared for the monkeys, feared they were dying from Simian Hemorrhagic Fever, a disease lethal to monkeys …showed first 75 words of 667 total…

…showed last 75 words of 667 total…highly lethal viruses on a regular basis. Preston has written a fast-paced and fascinating novel of medical panic. His gripping narrative is filled with horrifying and gore-filled descriptions and tension-building plot turns. From depictions of events at a Belgian Hospital in Africa to the nerve-racking laboratory scenes in Virginia, he is adept at keeping the reader riveted. At the conclusion the reader is left with the chilling and fact based haunting after thought "what if?"