MARCH 2019 - AudioFile
Christine Lakin is the principal narrator of Strathdee’s story of her terrifying and frantic mission to save her husband, psychologist Thomas Patterson, from the deadly and multidrug-resistant superbug A. BAUMANNII. Lakin sweeps listeners into an account as terrifying as it is enthralling. When every approved treatment fails, Strathdee looks for any alternatives, finding a possibility in phage therapy, dismissed a century ago by clinicians. Lakin’s portrayal of Strathdee’s hunt presents true desperation, while passages on the history of antibiotics and the mounting difficulties faced by contemporary medicine ring with authority. Her husband’s side is not forgotten; interludes by Dan Woren give listeners Patterson’s perspective on fighting one of nature’s most lethal bacteria. E.J.F. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/31/2019
Epidemiologist Strathdee and psychiatrist Patterson are vacationing in Egypt in 2015 at the onset of this gripping and intriguing medical thriller. After crawling into a pyramid, Patterson falls violently ill. Strathdee, his wife, initially attributes his sickness to food poisoning, but doctors in an Egyptian clinic soon diagnose acute pancreatitis, later found to be complicated by a football-sized pseudocyst infected with an antibiotic-resistant superbug. Eventually medivaced home to San Diego, Patterson is hospitalized while Strathdee balances her role as a loving caregiver with a “pit bull scientist’s” determination to save her 69-year-old husband. He suffers several bouts of septic shock, goes into coma, and is placed on a ventilator. With the support of a global team of doctors and researchers, Strathdee pursues a nearly forgotten century-old treatment called phage therapy, which employs a virus administered through drains and IV, “the perfect predator,” to wage battle against the menacing bacteria. After eight weeks of phage therapy and a total of nine months in the hospital, Patterson is discharged to his home, where he continues to improve. Along with the chronicle of Patterson’s struggle is the authors’ incisive commentary on the alarming superbug problem worldwide, which they assert is perhaps even more concerning to the human race than climate change. This page-turner of a couple’s determination to survive also serves as a dire warning regarding the consequences of the overuse of antibiotics. Agent: Gail Ross, the Ross Yoon Agency. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Amazon, "Best Books of 2019 (Science)"
Goodreads Choice Awards, Semifinalist (Science & Technology)
STAT News, " Best Health and Science Books to Read This Summer"
"A fascinating and terrifying peek into the devastating outcomes of antibiotic misuse — and what happens when standard health care falls short."— Scientific American
"[A] gripping and intriguing medical thriller...This page-turner of a couple's determination to survive also serves as a dire warning regarding the consequences of the overuse of antibiotics."— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A thriller, a detective story, and at its core a profound romance, The
Perfect Predator is [a] breathtaking story.... It's a warning of the havoc that awaits us as antibiotics lose their power, and a glimpse of the science that could hold that dark future at bay - if we can summon the funding and the political will to create it."— Maryn McKenna, Senior Fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and author of Big Chicken and Superbug
"At once terrifying and inspiring, The Perfect Predator is a brilliant race-against-the-clock medical thriller that is also a celebration of love, commitment, and the power of scientific collaboration."— Steven Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and The Ghost Map
"A remarkable story of love, resilience, the science of discovery, and quite possibly the future of medicine."— Richard Horton, FRCP, FMedSci, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
"One of the single most compelling personal stories we've ever heard."— Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry, authors of The Essential Guide to Getting your Book Published
"A real-life medical thriller...fast paced [and] the writing is always infused with humor,
hope, and intelligence, and the couple's remarkable story is grounded in real-life details that bring readers directly into their world. Dark, surreal poetic."— Kirkus Reviews
" The Perfect Predator is a compelling and heart-wrenching medical drama that would be completely unbelievable - if it weren't 100% true!
Strathdee and Patterson masterfully weave together the personal,
medical, and scientific strands of their battle against one of the world's worst superbugs, bringing not just Patterson, but a century-old medical technology back from the brink of death. This first-hand account of the front lines of the battle against the scourge of antimicrobial resistance underscores the human cost underlying the bland statistics."— Rob Knight, PhD, Director, Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego and author of Follow Your Gut and Dirt Is Good
"[A] riveting tale...The saga reads like a thriller....Remarkable passages from Patterson [describe] how he interpreted events through veils of feverish delirium, pain-killer fog, and coma."— Laurie Garrett, The Lancet
"The story of a woman fighting for her husband's life is interesting in and of itself, but this book is so much more than that. It was written by a scientist who used her public health training to discover a solution to a problem; it just so happens that the solution she found may be an answer to one of the most urgent health problems in the world."— American Journal of Public Health
"[A] real page-turner."— Science News
"I simply could not put down the book. It reads like a fast-paced, detective thriller."— Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health, McGill University, Montreal
"[A] medical thriller for the antibiotic-resistant age."— Smithsonian
"[Tom's case is a] case that may mark a turning point in medicine."— American Association of Medical Colleges Newsletter
"A riveting, pulse-pounding medical thriller that just happens to be true. Steffanie Strathdee is expert at weaving science into compulsively readable prose."— Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of THE SHAPE OF NIGHT
"...A memoir that reads like a thriller."— New York Times Book Review
"If you're looking for a gift for a young person currently considering a career in science or medicine, this is the book to buy."— AJTMH journal
Library Journal - Audio
★ 05/01/2019
Strathdee (associate dean of global health sciences) and Patterson (psychiatry, both UC-San Diego) were vacationing in Egypt in 2014 when Patterson fell ill. His condition became critical, leading to his being medevaced, first to Germany, and later to the hospital at UC-San Diego. Once aware that her husband's deteriorating condition was owing to his having been infected with one of the most lethal bacteria in the world, Strathdee scoured infectious disease research for treatments to combat the bacteria that was killing him. She learned that a century earlier some physicians and scientists had found that viruses called phages had been effective in destroying bacteria. At the time of Patterson's infection, phage therapy was being studied in few places, but two included Texas A&M and the U.S. Navy Biomedical Center. Generous help from both facilities, as well as the FDA allowing unprecedented experimental treatment, gave Strathdee and Patterson hope that Patterson's life could be saved. Narrator Christine Larkin could not have engaged the listener more thoroughly. Twists, turns, hope, and despair are presented in a compassionate and appealing voice. Interspersed in Strathdee's narrative are short interludes from the perspective of Patterson, read by Dan Woren. With both voices, the listener learns of the loving relationship and mutual respect the couple shared before, during, and after the months of fear and uncertainty. VERDICT This story of a life and death fight against an antibiotic-resistant superbug is pertinent to every person on the planet and written to be accessible to a general audience. Both fiction and nonfiction fans will relish this story.—Ann Weber, Los Gatos, CA
MARCH 2019 - AudioFile
Christine Lakin is the principal narrator of Strathdee’s story of her terrifying and frantic mission to save her husband, psychologist Thomas Patterson, from the deadly and multidrug-resistant superbug A. BAUMANNII. Lakin sweeps listeners into an account as terrifying as it is enthralling. When every approved treatment fails, Strathdee looks for any alternatives, finding a possibility in phage therapy, dismissed a century ago by clinicians. Lakin’s portrayal of Strathdee’s hunt presents true desperation, while passages on the history of antibiotics and the mounting difficulties faced by contemporary medicine ring with authority. Her husband’s side is not forgotten; interludes by Dan Woren give listeners Patterson’s perspective on fighting one of nature’s most lethal bacteria. E.J.F. 2020 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-03-03
A real-life medical thriller that proves when science, medicine, and perseverance align, "the impossible becomes possible."
In 2015, infectious disease epidemiologist Strathdee (Global Health Sciences/Univ. of California, San Diego School of Medicine) and her husband, Patterson, a psychologist, were on vacation in Egypt when he was infected with one of the deadliest antibiotic-resistant superbugs on the planet. In a few terrifying days, his health deteriorated to the point where it was uncertain whether modern medicine could help him. As Strathdee writes, "Tom was quickly becoming the poster child for the dystopian future of the post-antibiotic age." In this fast-paced memoir, the authors describe how Strathdee scoured scientific history and identified an unconventional cure: phage therapy, in which a virus is utilized as a bacterial killer. The catch was that phage therapy hadn't been used in the United States in nearly a century, and no one knew how to find the right virus, purify it to meet FDA standards, and administer it safely. Miraculously, Strathdee overcame every one of these obstacles with the help of kindhearted and intrepid researchers from around the world. Despite the potential heartbreak that lurks within every chapter, the writing is always infused with humor, hope, and intelligence, and the couple's remarkable story is grounded in real-life details that bring readers directly into their world: desperate late-night emails to people who might help, on-the-fly Googling of critical care lingo, impromptu dance parties at Tom's bedside. The book also includes dark, surreal poetic interludes from Patterson's perspective, providing a glimpse into the patient's mindset, an interesting contrast to the chronicle of his wife's relentless effort to save him.
Strathdee's recognition as one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care is unquestionably well-deserved; as this page-turning book shows, she is a hero whose insight and determination could serve as models to help save many more lives.
