Badwater follows a team of forensic geologists (think CSI
with rocks) as they race against time to stop a catastrophic release of nuclear
waste in unspoiled Death Valley. The premise of the book fascinated me from the
start, although, to my shame, I could not see how rocks could be that
interesting. I was however pleasantly surprised.
The book has a trilling start, a road crash site in the
middle of the desert with a murdered driver and a missing barrel of nuclear
waste. The thrills continue throughout the book, which has a good pace, and
whist the reader is aware of the culprit from the start due to his narrative in
one of the first chapters, the reader is kept guessing as to who else can be
trusted, which keeps things interesting. The forensic geology is well integrated
into the plot, and is not just brushed to the side as can happen in these types
of ‘CSI’ books; and I found both the geology and the nuclear science very
accurate and interesting. I had a good chuckle at some of the more sciencey
jokes in the book too – such as the analogy of the three types of radiation as
the Three Little Pigs. There are numerous references to different places in
Death Valley in the book – and the inclusion of a map at the start is a nice touch
and makes it easier to picture the places when they are mentioned.
The only slight source of irritation for me was the, at
times, heavy use of colloquial spelling such as “Shore Thang” which tended to
jar me out my flow of reading. I can understand the author trying to get across
the local accent, but I felt in this case it wasn't needed and was
inconsistently used. There were also a few grammatical issues (such as mixed
used of the first and third person) but these did not affect my enjoyment of
the book.
Overall a quick, but very enjoyable read which should appeal
to any fan of science based thrillers. I will be looking forward to reading the
second book in the series – Volcano Watch. Badwater was awarded the 2012 Best Indie Whodunnit award from Wired.com.
Badwater is available as an e-book for £2.36 from Amazon
, and is also available in dead-tree and audio-book formats
[Review copy provided by the author]
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