jhscolloquium's reviews
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Author T.J. Newman had the idea for Worst Case Scenario while researching her first novel, Falling, by querying pilots not just about all aspects of their job, but also their fears. They often told her they worried about planes getting caught in power lines, making erroneous decisions, freezing and not being able to make decisions and, of course, not returning home to their families. But Newman says one pilot’s answer “stopped me in my tracks.” She wasn’t sure if he was serious and initially scoffed when he told her, “My greatest fear is a commercial airliner crashing into a nuclear power plant.” Newman believed it an impossibility due to structural standards and security measures in place “in a post-9/11 world.” She naively thought “all nuclear power plants were safe from attack.” But the pilot disavowed her of that idea, saying, “That’s exactly what they want you to think.”

Newman circled back to the idea for her third nove, Worst Case Scenario. At the outset, she knew virtually nothing about nuclear power plants but, luckily, discovered that because of industry transparency, the needed information is readily available. Newman describes her books as “plot focused” and once she completed her research, the genesis of Worst Case Scenario was a complete outline totaling around sixty pages laying out the action.

Worst Case Scenario is a departure for Newan in that the focus of the book is not on how her protagonists will rescue the airliner’s passengers and crew. But the story does open with a crisis on board. As the plane is flying over Minnesota, the pilot suffers a fatal widowmaker heart attack and the 757 goes into free fall. At United Grace Church in the little town of Waketa, fifty-five miles south of Minneapolis, widower Steve Tostig, the Clover Hill nuclear energy plant's on-site Fire Chief, is attending the mid-day Good Friday service. The walls and floor begin to rattle just as something flies over the church, and a loud boom shakes the entire structure. Steve immediately springs into action as Dr. Joss Vance notices the lights in her kitchen flickering and instantly knows what is about to happen. The power goes out. As she grabs her work go-bag containing a satellite phone, full-body hazmat suit, masks, gloves, rubber boots, and a bottle of pills, she washes down the radioprotective potassium iodide with the coffee she had been drinking at her kitchen table and races out the door, en route to Clover Hill. The alert on her phone confirms what she already knows. There has been an incident at the plant. Potentially, a Level 7 incident. “When you work in nuclear power, you never fully forget what it is you do. How dangerous it is, how horrific the potential could be. You always, always respect the potential.” So Joss has “always known a day like this was not a matter of if but when.” In fact, it was that knowledge that brought her home to Waketa and her job as the regional representative of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team. After earning a PhD in nuclear engineering at MIT, Joss worked on policy at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C. where she grew tired of “being dismissed as an alarmist.”

The large plane breaks apart, strewing debris across a vast area. Just as a van is crossing the bridge over the Mississippi River, carrying a family to an Easter celebration, one of the wings -- ten times larger than the van and carrying hundreds of thousands of gallons of jet fuel -- lands directly in the van’s path. The rear of the van is left dangling thirty feet above the icy water as a massive fire erupts. Five-year-old Connor, who was riding in the van his father was driving, is conscious and still strapped into his car seat.

Once again, Newmans employs her straight-forward, unembellished storytelling style to describe the confusion and chaos that ensues after the crash. In the control room, Plant Manager Ethan Rosen and his staff don’t immediately know what has happened – explosion, earthquake, terrorist attack, equipment failure? – because they work in a windowless room in the building that houses one of three reactors. Clover Hill is in the process of being decommissioned, but it takes years. So only one reactor is offline. The other two were online and generating power when the plane crashed. With alarms sounding, staff frantically begin assessing the status of the plant and soon learn that pieces of the aircraft are scattered across the Clover Hill campus. Gradually, they realize what they are dealing with . . . and must figure out how to address the damage the plant has sustained, a situation no one has ever faced before. They discover that the power line to the plant has been severed so the plant is running on backup diesel generators, and there is extensive structural damage throughout, including to the pool where spent fuel rods are warehoused. It is leaking. If the water level becomes low enough and the rods are exposed, the building in which they are stored will explode. The plant began operating in 1973, so the amount of nuclear waste stored there would feed a fire of a “magnitude mankind has yet to conceive of a way to put out. It would burn forever.” In the other words, it could be the world’s first Level 8, “extinction-level event.”

Newman notes that “it’s very easy to get your characters into trouble. It’s a lot harder to get them out of trouble.” And the trouble her characters face in Worst Case Scenario could be exponentially more far-reaching than the crises depicted in her first two books. She “reverse engineers” her stories. So once she decided that the plane would crash into the plant, she had to figure out the challenges her characters would face and how they would handle them. She set the tale in the fictional small town, rather than a larger metropolitan area, to illustrate “a real nightmare worst case scenario for the country.” Other regions, like California (where only the Diablo Canyon plant remains operational, and three others have been fully decommissioned), have more resources and safeguards available. And by placing Clover Hill at the top of the Mississippi River, the catastrophe could destroy “the heart of the country,” rendering uninhabitable a large swath of land bisecting the United States.

Once again, Newman has created a cast of empathetic characters navigating a crisis that demands they be their best selves. Ethan and Steve, in leadership roles, gather input and make hard decisions, while Joss serves as the liaison to America’s youngest-ever President, who is safely ensconced five stories down in the White House’s Deep Underground Command Center with his advisors. Newman alternates the action between the plant and, to a lesser degree, the people of Wateka banding together, relying on information broadcast by a retired plant engineer from an underground bunker on the plant’s campus. His forty-seven-year career included a role in the plant’s construction and his insight proves invaluable.

A second major storyline focuses on a group of heroic first responders who refuse to abandon little Conner, even though they have no idea how to safely extract him from the van. Newman includes a gut-wrenching exploration of the allocation of scarce resources and the options available in such circumstances, noting that they are “undermanned, under-resourced, out of ideas, and out of time trying to save one individual person.” Must the needs of many be prioritized over the peril faced by one? “It’s about saving the fate of humanity. But what is that, if not the life of one individual?” she observes.

Throughout Worst Case Scenario, Newman deftly illustrates her characters’ palpable terror and the responsibility they feel to each other, as well as the countless Americans who will be impacted in myriad ways if their survival mission fails. The characters are fully developed and believable – not surprisingly, most rise to the occasion, but some take longer than others. Most importantly, Newman compels readers to care about her characters and their futures. The story would not succeed sans that emotional connection and she is gratified when readers identify with and cheer for her characters because she cares deeply about their welfare as she brings them to life, going through “boxes and boxes of Kleenex” while she writes. Her compassion is evident on every page, alongside her readily understandable and terrifying explanations of precisely what is at stake. Newman says that “the absolute heart and essence of my stories, is everyday people in an extraordinary circumstance rising to meet the moment. I deeply believe in the everyday hero in all of us, and that ordinary people only need the opportunity to be the heroes that they actually are.”

To dismiss Newman’s latest tautly crafted story as far-fetched or implausible would be a mistake. She says Worst Case Scenario was more difficult to write than her first two books. Once she began researching the subject matter, she “realized that the premise of the book is completely plausible, and . . . this research scared the hell out of me.” Still, she does not consider the tale an indictment of the nuclear energy industry. “If I have an agenda with my books, it is to entertain. Full stop.”

Newman has penned another horrifyingly realistic and deeply unsettling thriller. It is fast-paced, tense, and riveting. It is also moving, replete with heartbreaking losses and disappointment, as well as valor, personal sacrifice, and triumph. She explores familial and community relationships, challenging readers to contemplate how they would react in a similar situation. It is certain to be yet another bestseller . . . and leaves readers pondering just what she will come up with next.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

Good Half Gone by Tarryn Fisher

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Iris and her twin sister, Piper, were just fifteen years old when Iris witnessed Piper’s kidnapping. Piper was grabbed by three men who also took Iris’s phone, so she ran back into the movie theater where the manager let her use the phone there to summon help and confirmed for police that Iris had indeed arrived with a girl who looked exactly like her. The girls lived with their grandmother, Betty, because their mother, Virginia, was an addict, incapable of caring for them, who lost custody when a teacher requested a wellness check. Every year, on the anniversary of Piper’s abduction, Iris listens to the recording of the 911 call she placed from the lobby of the theater. From her perspective, the police were slow to respond, asking questions that seemed irrelevant. “They were stuck on the phone thing. They wanted to know why the men would take my phone.” The police insinuated that Piper voluntarily left with the three men, abandoning her sister at the theater. Officers patronized and placated Iris, who was “hysterical” and already riddled with shame because “I’d lost my sister. Gran told me to take care of her, and now she was gone,” she recalls. Piper had become “boy crazy” and expelled for engaging in inappropriate behavior with them on campus. Even though Piper claimed to have changed – and become religious -- Gran was emphatic: “Don’t let her out of your sight. I mean in. I’m not raising her babies.” Iris learns that Piper’s kidnappers were supposed to grab both of them and is further engulfed in survivor's guilt.

Three years after Piper’s disappearance, Gran and Iris were able to move into a cozy Seattle home left to Gran by an aunt. It is there they are raising Callum, now nine years old. Thirteen months after Piper vanished, he was left, with the umbilical cord still attached, on Virginia’s doorstep in a box with a blanket and a note: “Iris, daughter of no one, please take care of my son. His name is Callum.” It was signed, “Twin,” and Iris instantly recognized the handwriting as Piper’s. Iris has never understood why, if Piper is still alive, she would leave her child and, more curiously, why she would leave his with their mother.

Iris and Piper were very different. Piper was popular, while Iris had only a few friends with whom she did not interact outside of school. They fought, deliberately antagonizing each other as only siblings can. But they loved each other and because of their experiences with their mother, who would disappear during drug-induced hazes, leaving the girls on their own for days at a time, “Piper wouldn’t disappear for a night and not tell us. She was a free spirit but a considerate one.”

Iris is now twenty-three years old. Virigina, an unabashed narcissist, is serving a five-year prison sentence for armed robbery and maintains she is “born again.” At sixty-seven, Gran has already survived an ischemic stroke and heart attack, and Iris worries about her health, always careful not to upset her. Iris, who has spent years balancing her studies, caring for Callum, and obsessively searching for Piper, has been accepted into an internship program at Shoal Island Hospital to which she was encouraged to apply by one of her professors. It is a private hospital for the mentally ill, teetering on a cliff and reachable only by ferry. She is convinced that the man responsible for Piper’s abduction resides there. And she is going to at last learn her sister’s fate.

Dr. Leo Grayson is a renowned celebrity psychotherapist who holds two doctorate degrees and has authored several bestselling books. But he has been out of the spotlight for a number of years, and now in his mid-forties, Internet searches only produce the same photos of him taken years ago. He is the only doctor on staff at Shoal Island, which opened in 1944 but has been renovated many times since. Originally an army outpost, it later served as a prison and a home for unwed mothers. Only forty patients are housed there, each one a violent offender who never stood trial because they were ruled incompetent to do so by the courts. Iris will not be dissuaded from breaking any rule necessary in order to access D Hall where five patients are merely housed in solitary confinement, with no effort made to rehabilitate them. She is warned never to venture there unless accompanied by the doctor. But Iris is anxious to do just that, and participate in their therapy sessions, because she has studied all five of them and is certain. “One of them killed my sister.” She does not expect to find herself attracted to the handsome and charming Dr. Grayson . . . and confiding in him. Could that prove to be a fatal mistake?

Through a somewhat unreliable first-person narrative from Iris, which alternates between the past and present, author Tarryn Fisher relates a story that is heartbreaking and full of shocking twists. Iris is a sympathetic character. A steadfast sister who, despite conflicts with her twin, remans devoted to finding out what happened to her and seeking justice not just for Piper, but also for Callum, the innocent little boy who has never known his mother. Iris immediately devoted herself to Callum, enrolling in a home school program so she could serve as his surrogate mother. She adores Gran, a scrappy, streetwise woman who has seen more than her share of disappointment during a life as an exotic dancer, prison guard, and, eventually, librarian. Iris lovingly describes her as “resourceful, tough, smart – and one hundred percent unapologetic. My hero.” She is all too aware of who and what Virginia is, and fiercely protective of her granddaughters and little Callum. The novel succeeds as an examination of the family dynamics, especially the sisters’ relationship. Fisher also credibly depicts the teenage struggles of Iris and Piper, who have vastly different personalities, but are both impacted by childhood traumas. It is also an indictment of police officers who are embroiled in their own scandals and far too quick to write Piper off as just a troubled girl who decided to run away.

Iris is certain that only Gran knows the real reason she applied for the internship, but as Fisher gradually reveals clues to Piper’s fate, it becomes clear that the missing girl naively got involved with people who had nefarious motives. And Iris has brazenly but perhaps foolishly embarked on a mission that has placed her in grave danger.

The mystery surrounding Piper’s kidnapping is an intriguing exploration of contemporary topics including drug abuse and human trafficking, in addition to teenage angst. The gothic atmosphere at Shoal Island effectively heightens the dramatic tension. It is an ominous, oppressive, and frightening setting populated by interesting characters who may or may not compound the dangers Iris faces. The story's pace accelerates to an action-packed climax, but that aspect of the story is less successful. The ending arrives abruptly and feels rushed, although it is replete with surprises that readers will never quite be able to guess. Fisher provides answers, resolving all aspects of the mindboggling story and bringing it to a satisfying conclusion with a distinctly cinematic quality, albeit through a circuitous route that is ridiculously far-fetched, even for a psychological thriller, a genre which regularly requires readers to suspend their disbelief to varying degrees.

Despite the ending, Good Half Gone is entertaining and absorbing, and readers will find themselves unable to resist cheering for Iris, Gran, and, of course, Callum.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

Served Cold by James L'Etoile

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Author James L'Etoile introduced readers to Detective Sergeant Nathan Parker with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona in Dead Drop. He and his partner, Josh McMillan, were assigned to patrol a road near the United States - Mexico border with the goal of interrupting the flow of undocumented migrants who were accessing it to bypass Immigration and Customs Enforcement checkpoints. McMillan was brutally murdered by Esteban Castaneda, a vicious leader in the Los Muertos gang. Nathan blames himself, convinced that had he responded faster to McMillan's urgent radio call, he might have saved his partner. And apprehended Castaneda who, five years later, remains at large.

Once again. L’Etoile immediately immerses readers in a fast-paced thriller replete with shocking plot twists. The book opens with a young State Trooper who has been banished by his superiors to the graveyard shift to hopefully instill an attitude adjustment. He pulls his vehicle off the desolate highway to patrol a rest stop. A few truckers have stopped there for the night. Curiously, though, he discovers an unmarked cargo container on a flatbed trailer with no license plate. It appears to be leaking air conditioner refrigerant. There is no tractor or driver in the vicinity, but one of the truck drivers reports having observed a tractor speeding out of the rest stop several hours earlier. When the Trooper opens the door of the container, he finds it fully packed with the bodies of young men – twenty-eight in all -- with their “arms, legs, heads all intertwined like a Hieronymus Bosch portrait of the damned.”

Nathan responds to the scene and immediately commences an investigation into who the men were, how they came to be in the cargo container, how they died, and who is responsible for their demise. Assigned to lead the inquiry, he immediately begins searching for a connection between the victims.

Nathan and his colleagues have extensive experience dealing with groups crossing the border, often with the promised assistance of unscrupulous coyotes who extract compensation through threats and violence. Often, those arrangements end tragically, dreams of a better life in America turned into wondering and grief for surviving family members back home. But the decedents were clearly not on their way to start working in the agriculture industry. Each of the men was wearing a long-sleeved white dress shirt, dark slacks, and sneakers or leather loafers. None of them bear the callouses or scars earned by performing hard physical labor. The medical examiner assesses the victims and preliminarily opines that they all died of asphyxiation. Miraculously, one young man is still alive, but unconscious and in critical condition. He is rushed to the hospital as authorities attempt to ascertain his identity, along with the names of the deceased. A Mexico City newspaper reported that two mothers recently voiced concerns about their sons. The young men left home, allegedly to begin new jobs with a tech company in America. But both of them have vanished.

Irascible, enigmatic Billie Carson, introduced in Dead Drop, saw her fortunes change dramatically by the conclusion Devil Within, the second book in the series. When readers met Billie, she was living in a dilapidated travel trailer, surviving by scouring the desert for lost and abandoned items she sold to recycling yards. Billie is a former coyote with knowledge about the routes across the border, as well as the people who control them and prey on those desperate to make their way to the United States to forge better lives for themselves and their families. She lived off the radar after testifying against a cartel operating a human trafficking ring. Even though she is now a wealthy woman, her lifestyle has not changed much. She uses her money to keep the Immigrant Coalition running, with the assistance of Miguel, Nathan’s foster son. She has become a beloved member of their family.

Because the federal court monitors the interactions between the Sheriff’s Office and the Hispanic community, a liaison is assigned to the investigation. Nathan initially insists that is not necessary, but ceases protesting when he learns that Deputy Linda Hunt, with whom he is, unbeknownst to his superiors, in a healthy romantic relationship, will be serving in that capacity.

As the investigation proceeds, it quickly becomes apparent that Esteban Castaneda, the man who murdered Nathan’s partner, is back. Someone is tagging a series of crime scenes and Nathan deduces that the messages are personal – they are telling him that he is a marked man. And he is not the only one in danger. Clearly, Castaneda and Los Muertos were somehow involved in the deaths of the young men found in the cargo container, all of whom were exposed to radiation and had high levels of carbon monoxide in their systems. (Thus, Nathan and other personnel who entered the container were also exposed. But that cannot slow down their investigation.) Billie assists Nathan by visiting West Valley Machine Shop which figured in Devil Within, too. She watches the employees packing boxes, but not with auto parts. And all the cartons bore the international symbol for radiation and the words “Caution, Medical Waste” in Ukrainian. The mystery surrounding the decedents deepens. Is Los Muertos shipping radioactive material? If so, what kind and where is it headed? Or is it a ruse, designed to distract observers and keep them from learning what nefarious activity they are actually engaged in?

Once again, L’Etoile has crafted a fast-paced, inventive mystery replete with unpredictable developments. The riveting story succeeds because it is deftly plotted and intricately designed, and delivers shocking twists that compel readers to keep reading. L’Etoile throws numerous obstacles in Nathan’s path, including dirty cops, bureaucrats, and immunity deals over which Nathan has no control, but he is undeterred. He also must untangle a web of machinations, double-crosses, and power plays by cartel leaders.

Each lead character is fully developed and empathetic. Nathan has carried the guilt he feels about his partner’s death for five full years. It derailed his life and career for a time. L’Etoile notes that when he launched the series, Nathan “obsessed over getting justice and revenge on Castaneda.” He permitted it to “cloud his judgement and it nearly cost him his life.” Now Castaneda is back, and Nathan is just as determined that he will not evade justice, but with the perspective that time and experience have brought him, Nathan knows that revenge “won’t come without a cost.” Is Nathan willing to pay it? “It’s about making sure Castaneda doesn’t make another McMillan. He’s brought terror and violence down on everyone and it’s time for it to end,” Nathan declares. “Revenge is best served cold.” L’Etoile provides a satisfying resolution to Nathan’s saga after his circuitous route to finally squaring off against his nemesis.

Once again, Billie is enmeshed in the action and at the heart of the tale. She has become a beloved character to fans of the series. L’Etoile relates, “A woman stopped me once and pointed her finger at me, telling me, ‘You better not hurt Billie.’” In Served Cold, Billie comes under suspicion. Billie is part of the family Nathan has forged with Miguel and, now, Linda and her foster son, Leon. Was Nathan wrong to trust her? L’Etoile discloses more details about Billie’s past, some of which are jaw-dropping. Can her relationship with Nathan survive once the truth is revealed?

Even though L’Etoile shepherds several of the storylines in the three books to logical conclusions, many issues remain unresolved. Presumably, they will be addressed in the three additional installments in the series that he has planned. “Everyone’s entitled to a secret or two.” And whether he complies with that fan’s demand that he keep Billie safe from harm remains to be seen.

Thanks to the author for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jhscolloquium's reviews 904 reviews

jhscolloquium's reviews
904 reviews