Jon Jefferson’s newest novel, Wave of Terror (Thomas & Mercer, $15.95) explores a terrorist plot on a scale that would put 9/11 to shame. Jefferson is best known as half the mystery-writing team of Jefferson Bass, of The Body Farm fame, but this book is not about the discovery of a badly decomposing body and the resulting forensics investigation. Instead, Jefferson has crafted a compelling, action-packed spy thriller that’s part James Bond and part big-budget disaster movie.

Events begin innocently enough as astronomer Megan O’Malley, a “rising star of the Johns Hopkins astronomy department,” takes advantage of a three-day sabbatical to use the Isaac Newton Telescope on Spain’s La Palma Island (part of the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa) in her search for Planet Nine. … But each time O’Malley aligns the telescope to conduct her search of the heavens, it inexplicably shifts, ruining her night of stargazing.

O’Malley’s dogged investigations ultimately reveal a doomsday scenario—deliberate explosions along a major fault line through La Palma that could result in a major earthquake, causing a massive tsunami. FBI Special Agent Chip Dawtry … is handed O’Malley’s report with its wild theory about the terrorist risk, and he rushes to La Palma to investigate. Hoping to prevent the unthinkable from happening, the two protagonists race to determine who has been blasting on La Palma even as the culprits behind the plot close in on them.

Dawtry and O’Malley are a likable, fun pair with a clear passion for justice.

Read the full review at Chapter 16.

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Everyone has their guilty pleasures. Romances, westerns, and the like. For me, it's disaster novels. The type that get turned into cheesy movies, like Armageddon, San Andreas (which combined a movie I loved, a movie I liked, and a movie I hated. Seriously, I would have loved the movie if it was all about the scientist and the reporter, trying to warn people in time to save themselves, with a touch of the girl and the two brothers. Drop Dwayne Johnson's plot out the window, please).

So based on that love, I had high hopes for Wave of Terror when I saw it on NetGalley. I've heard of the La Palma earthquake danger before going in, and the idea of terrorists trying to cause a tsunami-causing earthquake had a lot of potential.

But the characters, and the story were very disappointing. The astronomer who figures it out jumps to conclusions and runs to the CIA way to fast to be believable. And towards the end, she magically gains a lot of geology knowledge that made no sense. And the romantic interest was ridiculously fast to run out on his FBI job without permission to find her after reading her packet of information that everyone dismisses because they say she is an 'astrologer'.

By the time I reached the 1/3 mark, I was skim reading, waiting for the disaster promised by the title/cover/description. By the time I reached the 2/3 mark, I realized that there was going to be no disaster (other than the book itself). Still, I was far enough that I felt committed to finishing the book.

In the end, I felt that the story idea had a lot of potential, but the characters killed it. And the cover, with the giant wave dwarfing the Statue of Liberty made promises that were never fulfilled. It left me disinclined to reading any of the other books by the author.

For a disaster novel that follows through on it's promise, I would recommend Rogue Wave, by Boyd Morrison instead.

I like disaster and save-the planet action stories. Any sort. Movies -- Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Volcano, Sharknado, Deep Impact. Love 'em all. Disaster books -- One Second After, The Alliance, The Virus, EMP. Big Scale S hitting the fan or large scale sinister plots averted at the last moment...it's my secret genre obsession. :) When I saw a book called Wave of Terror....oh hell yeah....I had to read it! I expected to get more than my daily reading allowance of cheese. But, this book really surprised me. While there is still cheese, this is a totally kick ass story! Entertaining, not overly melodramatic, just enjoyable to read. Very cinematic. I could easily see this being made into a movie.

Is this classic brilliant fiction? Nope. It's an action suspense story, not Ivanhoe. I read this book purely for entertainment. Sort of like watching a Stallone film. I'm not looking for brilliant film-making...I want to see shit explode and ass kicking. Same with this book....I wanted the action and entertainment. And it delivered. Pure mind candy.

The basics: Astronomer Megan O'Malley travels to La Palma in the Canary Islands to use the large observatory there for 3 days. She paid a lot of money for her time there, and she's hopeful that she will find Planet 9. But, it seems small earthquakes will be her nemesis. Every time she gets lined up for some top notch photos of the night sky, the shots are all fuzzy from vibrations. Strangely enough, she discovers after her trip that the seismic records from her time at the observatory don't show any earthquakes anywhere near La Palma. The discrepancy annoys her enough to start doing research into what happened. What she discovers is so much more than just minor tremors. Potentially millions of people could die. Nobody will listen to her except Chip Dawtry, an FBI agent specializing in terrorist threats. Can they prevent a mega-tsunami that could destroy the entire eastern seaboard of the United States?

Between the movie references and the Monty Python quotes, Agent Dawtry had me hooked immediately. The character is intelligent, more than slightly nerdy, and doesn't know how to take no for an answer. Megan is the same way. When she discovered the danger, nobody would listen to her. She had to stick with her evidence and convince people...not many listened. In fact....only two.

I would have been less surprised by this book had I looked closer at the author's name before I started reading. Jon Jefferson. Co-author of the Body Farm series and Death's Acre (with William Bass). Of course he can also write a entertaining action story! Wave of Terror is well-written. The suspense builds at a nice even pace and the action keeps the plot moving. A generous sprinkling of humor and characters that work well together strengthened the story.

Now, I do have to say that I am not a scientist. What I know about astronomy I learned from the Science Channel and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Geology -- I know an earthquake makes the ground shake and a bit that I learned in high school earth science. That's about it. So I have no clue if the scenario in this book is actually possible. I do know that it makes for an action plot entertaining enough to keep me reading. Sort of like the grandiose plots of Bond villains. Go big or go home, right? I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I really don't care if it could actually happen or not. I can suspend reality and believe for awhile that it is possible....and let these characters save the planet. Why not? I'm not reading a fictional account about a terrorist attack causing a 150 foot tidal wave because I love realistic fiction. Just have fun....and go with it. :) Like they say on Mystery Science Theater 3000.....it's just a story, you should really just relax.

As for what happens....not saying a word. No spoilers from me. Read the book! :)

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advance copy.

Megan O'Malley is in La Palma trying to find planet nine when her telescope feels a tremor. She has lost her focus and says something to her co worker. He says that the machine is old and that happens sometimes, but she feels like something is off. She looks into some of the data and notices an anomaly. The seismic activity that the scientists are recording, seems to have been tampered with. Nobody seems to believe here but she hands her evidence to the Government with the hopes that they will look into it because what she found looks like someone is trying to create an earthquake in La Palma, and if that happens, it could mean disaster for millions of people.

I was in the search for a good disaster book when I saw this one. It's the second one I've read that was set in and around La Palma and I had high hopes going in. While it wasn't the big disaster book I was hoping for, I actually still really enjoyed it! It was fast paced, intense and had enough of the science behind the mega tsunami to keep me happy!

I loved Megan. I admired her tenacity and the amount of effort she put into getting someone to believe her. She knows that what she found would be devastating to the US, and despite people, including her ex husband, not believing her, she fought hard to get them to listen. She also went back to the island to set up her own seismic monitors in the hope of getting some truthful data.

Then we have FBI special agent Chip Dawtry. He accidentally comes into possession of the details Megan collected. He initially disregards the evidence, but it begins to niggle at him and he decides to get in contact with Megan, but she isn't answering her phone and her apartment is thrashed. He needs to find her and the truth before it's too late.

In all, this was a good read. I enjoyed the plot and the way it was portrayed. While I was reading this, and after having finished another book about a possible tsunami if an earthquake happened in La Palma, a documentary was on the discovery channels about La Palma and what would happen if an earthquake was to occur. It was quite eerie!! It made the book a lot more plausible for me.

This novel will keep you in suspense and make you want to double check it was in fact just fiction.

Megan O’Malley is an astronomer concentrated on finding Planet Nine. When she heads to the Canary Islands to use their telescope, unintentionally she discovers something very wrong is happening – a suspicious and repeating seismic activity which does not show on the world-wide accessible seismic reports.

The moment she realizes what is going on, she finds herself in danger, in the middle of a sophisticated and political terrorist plot, which – if executed - will result in an international cataclysm.

Will Megan find the way to get people believe her in time to stop the nightmare from happening?

Jon Jefferson grabbed my attention pretty much form the very beginning of the book and never let it go. It is not that things that were happening were unpredictable and not expected – I would say the opposite. It was quite easy to guess what would happen next. The reason why I was so sucked into this novel is that it is written in such realistic manner, that it made me google most of the issues which are mentioned in the book, and double consider the actual probability of this happening in a real life.

Very current, catchy, thrilling, and fast-paced.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes action-packed books that cause adrenaline rush.

Try this one if you like natural disaster fiction featuring an intrepid male-female odd couple team fighting to save the world. It's pretty implausible but compulsively readable. Megan's an astronomer and Chip's an FBI SA and they are going to stop a man made tsunami on its way to take out the East Coast of the US. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a fast entertaining read.

Disaster Lite

I like disaster fiction - and disaster movies - a lot. And I've enjoyed this author's other books written as Jefferson Bass, along with forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass. So I had high hopes for this story.

Dr. Megan O'Malley, astronomer, heads to La Palma, a volcanic island in the Canary Islands, to spend three days on one of their lesser telescopes at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos to track what she believes is a hidden planet. But she ends up stumbling into a global conspiracy that would end in an apocalyptic disaster. THEN she tries to convince experts of what she's discovered.

FBI Special Agent Chip Dawtry happens to be one of the people she convinces and he heads to La Palma.

I enjoyed this book but, to me, it's as much romance as disaster thriller. And that's okay with me. It was funny plus there was also some cool action scenes. It reminded me in some ways of ROMANCING THE STONE.

I received this book from Thomas & Mercer through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Are you in the mood for a great disaster novel? Well, this is the one for you!

I'm a sucker for disaster novels and I comb the lists regularly to see when a new one is due to be released. I lucked out and, thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer, I received this ARC to read and review.

The premise -- an astronomist is in La Palma (in the Canary Islands 250 miles off the coast of Africa) looking for Planet Nine when she notices abnormal seismic activity that is not being transmitted to the scientists who monitor that sort of thing. When she does the research, she finds that a quake along the fault line there will result in catastrophic tidal waves that will decimate coastlines from North America and other countries along the Atlantic coast.

Dr. Megan O'Malley is no Cassandra but, in desperation, she contacts her ex-husband and the government. Unwittingly, an FBI special agent Chip Dawtry, gets the information she's trying to share to get out the warning. Can they make the authorities LISTEN before it's too late? This tsunamic wave will wipe out entire coastlines and cause millions of deaths -- not to mention the damage it will do to the economy and the infrastructure of all the areas affected. She's a lone voice, a scientist, but will those in power take her discovery to heart and intervene before it is too late?

I loved this very fast-paced novel and read it over a matter of hours, not wanting to put it down. It's tense and action-packed with all sorts of interesting characters and geography. Not to mention the incredible scientific detail about the fault line and the resultant catastrophe. Megan and Chip are a dynamic due who defy the odds and make the play to save the earth. What could be a more fun read?

The authors of this are quite well-known -- in fact, Jon Jefferson IS Jefferson Bass of the Body Farm series! If you're in the mood for thrills and heart-pounding adrenalin rush, this is the novel for you!
I only wish there were more titles like this available to read these days as I thoroughly enjoyed the break from my usual genre (mysteries and police procedurals).

Suspenseful thriller about an astronomer who discovers a terrorist plot to cause massive destruction and loss of lives. I found this to be a great read filled with science, car chases, quirky characters and a truly terrifying idea that makes me question my decision to live on the East Coast. Although I highly recommend this book!

This was quite a pageturner. Great premise, well researched, and the characters were very memorable. The witty dialog during some of the intense scenes was a little distracting and took away somewhat from the suspense that was being built, but it made it fun to read. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves mystery and suspense. You will not be disappointed.

Review: WAVE OF TERROR by Jon Jefferson

Scientific thriller WAVE OF TERROR takes as its premise a very real possibility, with a terrifying series of consequences. Since reading a few years ago of Antarctic ice melting and subsequent sea level rise, I've taken it upon myself to read thrillers and science fiction and horror focusing on a drowning planet. In this novel, author/journalist/filmmaker Jon Jefferson, co-author of the Body Farm series, postulates a concerted terrorist attack on the fault line of La Palma, a volcanic island in the Canary Islands off Spain. A sufficient earthquake, or series, at its fault line would collapse the mountain into the Atlantic. The resulting tsunami could easily destroy Northwest Africa, Britain, and America's Eastern Seaboard. If that isn't enough to keep you wide-awake and terrified, read WAVE OF TERROR, a missile-paced heart-in-mouth suspenseful thriller, leavened with character, humour, and growing romance.

I wanted so much to love this book, to want to shout its praises from the roof tops. But that just didn't happen for me with this one. The writing made me feel as if I was being told every aspect, leaving no room for any imagination.
That being said, I can see this being rather popular amongst dooms-day fans