This is an action packed, suspenseful novel that is loosely based on the 2021 apartment building collapse in south Florida; it takes the reader right into the heart of such a disaster, with vivid description from the scene – the exuberance of a rescue, the fear of an imminent collapse, the horror of realizing that the survivors are few – and the desolation of working that scene, day in and day out, until everyone is found.
It’s a chilly December morning when Meg Jennings, a member of the FBI’s Human Scent Evidence Team, gets word that a building has collapsed without warning in downtown DC, in the vicinity of the White House. Details are slim, but she knows she’ll be needed at the scene, so, quickly mobilizing, she and K-9 Hawk, along with close friend and news reporter McCord head to the scene.
Upon their arrival, it is every bit as bad as Meg had feared. A 12-story building has partially collapsed, each floor pancaking atop the other, with rubble extending into the roadway of a busy thoroughfare and countless victims trapped within the debris. The remainder of the building looks as if it will fall at any moment. Even worse, Meg knows her fiancé, firefighter Todd Webb is on scene amidst the chaos and likely in the wreckage searching for survivors.
As multiple disciplines converge on scene to gauge scene safety and to stabilize the area, Meg & Hawk await their orders. They are soon joined by her partner Brian & his K-9 Lacey – and are quickly cleared to begin working the debris pile, a three-story mountain of shattered concrete. Victories are few and far between, and the work quickly takes its toll on both human and canine searchers.
Readers learn of the incredible efforts put forth to find and save lives – from running simulations of where people may have been in their apartments at a particular time, to episodic quiet times, where rescuers deploy equipment looking for heat signatures & calls or tapping for help. We follow Webb and his fellow firefighters as they risk their lives to go door to door, clearing units in the portion of the building still standing and securing any pets that may have survived.
Webb risks his life to pull a lone survivor out of a deep pocket beneath the very unstable building, and in doing so he also finds something covertly tucked into a support beam. With suspicions mounting that this was not a structural collapse, McCord, an investigative journalist, digs deep into the possibility of resident being targeted, or worse a terrorist attack – but can they identify the culprits before they strike again.
This book was phenomenal!! I love all of the books in this series, but this one was stellar! I was fascinated by all the technology described, the work of the K-9’s, the ability of multijurisdictional teams to come together, working seamlessly to retrieve survivors and to bring home those who perished. The depictions of emotions, both high and low, human and canine…just an amazing read!
I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Kensington Books in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!
Tropical Delusions...... 