The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton is the techno thriller that made his name in the late sixties. A military satellite returns to earth carrying an unknown organism, and a small team of scientists is rushed into a buried laboratory to figure out what it is before it spreads.

The book is fast, plausible, and remains one of the foundational books of the modern science thriller. Highly recommended for the genre.