The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, died in 2008. To pay homage to him, I decided to reread his first book (published under his real name), The Andromeda Strain. Written in 1969, I was afraid it would be very dated but to my surprise it wasn’t. The plot centers around a group of scientists investigating a downed satellite. The satellite crashes near the small town of Piedmont, Arizona. When the military arrives to retrieve the satellite, they find everyone in the town dead except a baby and an elderly drunk man. The satellite has returned to earth carrying a deadly microscopic organism code named Andromeda. In the next five days the team of scientists race to figure out what the organism is and why the two people lived when everyone else died. When the organism is released into the atmosphere of their laboratory the tension grows. They are also racing against a failsafe system set to destroy the laboratory rather than let the organism spread to the outside world. I could not put this book down, even on a second reading. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a thrilling, tension filled book.