Frederick Lim

The Pandemic Files Frederick Lim

A Singapore journalist is in Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, to do on-the-ground stories of the pandemic. Having to resort to cat-and-mouse tactics to evade censorship curbs, he goes about searching for true-to-life stories. He comes upon first-hand personal accounts of fear and fearlessness, selfishness and self-sacrifice, hope and heartbreak as told to him by the people he interviewed-many reliving experiences that reveal the best and worst of humanity in a crisis. But what intrigues him most is the do-or-die decisions that some were forced to make when extreme circumstances called for extreme actions. He also runs into unscrupulous scam operators, including those from the media, who try to profit from the tragedy-which he then tries to expose. Then, mysterious circumstances behind a man's death leave him with a puzzle to solve even as he heads back to Singapore. And he has to solve it quickly to save a life.