Author: TJ Newman
Year published: 2024
Category: Adult fiction (thriller)
Pages: 336 pages
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Location: (my 2024 Google Reading map): USA (MN)
Summary: The International Nuclear Event Scale tracks nuclear disasters. It has seven levels. Level 7 is a Major Accident, with only two on record: Fukushima and Chernobyl. There has never been a Level 8. Until now.
In this heart-stopping thriller, ordinary people—power plant employees, firefighters, teachers, families, neighbors, and friends— are thrust into an extraordinary situation as they face the ultimate test of their lives. It will take the combined courage, ingenuity, and determination of a brave few to save not only their community and loved ones, but the fate of humanity at large.
Review: I very much enjoyed Newman's first two novels Falling and Drowning (links to my reviews) so when I saw that this third book was out I got a copy right away. And I read it in one day, staying up a bit too late on Saturday evening.
There are lots of moving parts in this novel, and so much information that I didn't know about nuclear power. If. you read this blog regularly, you'll know I like it when I learn something from a book. Consider me more knowledgeable about nuclear power, radiation burns, and rescue operations. The actual plane crash in only the very beginning of this novel; 90% of it is centered on the town of Waketa, Minnesota and how the citizens take care of one another in the face of disaster.
When something awful happens, who steps up to help? Who has the necessary knowledge and skills? Who is willing to sacrifice for the good of the whole? These are all questions that are at the fore front of this novel and there are tough decisions being made with a time pressure. I liked how the novel centered on a number of different groups of people: firefighters performing a daring rescue, the power plant employees, the teachers and others at a local church who are caring for the town's kids. They all play a vital role when disaster hits though their experiences are disparate.
Challenges for which this counts: none
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