This is a fantastic piece of journalism. Even if I disagreed with some interpretation (which I am not saying I did), this is still a model for how to go about researching and reporting on a story. Willman deserves all his awards. The carefully referenced and far ranging interviews which are the bulk of his sources should make this book the source on this topic. Willman tells the story of the mailing of anthrax spores through the mail in October, 2001, that sickened and killed several people.

Willman has interviewed almost anyone who would talk with him, drawing from a wide range of friends and acquaintances, and Iven's daughter, Amanda. (Her mother refused to talk to him.) Bruce Ivens was apparently a geeky, awkward teenager who learned how to maintain a social veneer, albeit an imperfect one. But a veneer is all it seems to have been. Might make one question the advice to put on a happy face. Ivens is shown to be an often asocial person, able to deceive and fond of playing with masks, vengeful and able to be an apparent friend while launching underhanded attacks.. Willman thinks that he carried out the attacks for the simple purpose of creating a demand for an anthrax vaccine that he was developing and had both a great professional pride and a financial interest in.

Ivens committed suicide rather than face trial, and Willman devotes one chapter to drawing out and reviewing the evidence that convinces him that Ivens was in fact guilty. Willman also recounts the story of Steven Hatfill, who was accused of the attack and suffered years of persecution on somewhat doubtful evidence (viruses, bacteria, what's the difference?). A rather frightening story, and one that does not put the FBI in the good light. I am not surprised to see that it was the managers who insisted on pursuing him, while the middle-level rank-and-file tried to turn the investigation into more promising directions. ( )