Tag: dystopian

Book Review – The Coming Fire by Greg Mosse

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About the Book

First came the darkness. Then the storm. Now it’s time to face the fire.

Following a fighter jet crash in the Haitian hinterland, special agent Alex Lamarque is taken captive by a violent gang, the lone authority in this lawless territory.

His only allies are busy on the other side of the world, facing a crescendo of dangers: the AI viruses crippling the digital state; the breakdown of law and order; and some unexpected, terrifying news from a Paris observatory.

With no hope of rescue, Alex must take on his greatest challenge entirely alone. Survival will take every bit of strength he has.

Format: Paperback (192 pages) Publisher: Moonflower Books
Publication date: 17th July 2025 Genre: Thriller, Dystopian

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My Review

The Coming Fire is the final book in the trilogy which started with The Coming Darkness and continued with The Coming Storm. The book accommodates those who haven’t read the earlier books by providing some recaps of events so far. However, I would suggest for maximum enjoyment, read the first two books. They’re fast-paced and you’ll race through them as I did.

The Coming Fire is set in 2037 in a world severely affected by climate change. Some parts of the globe have become uninhabitable which has led to mass migration. Those in possession of essential resources have power, the rest do not. Technology is familiar but has developed beyond what we have today. For example, there are fully autonomous vehicles. Just as today though, countries’ economies, infrastructure and vital services rely on digital communications relayed via satellites orbiting the Earth.

Imagine if all that came to a halt. Even worse, imagine that there are some who view that prospect not as a catastrophe but as the first stage in a reset for the planet, a chance for humanity to start all over again but on a smaller scale. And perhaps scariest of all, imagine there are people actively trying to bring this about.

The Coming Storm finished on an epic cliffhanger with the reader not knowing which of the main characters (all left in perilous situations) would make it out alive. The Coming Fire picks up directly from that point. In the case of Alex Lamarque, hailed as ‘saviour of the world’ for his role in defeating The Coming Darkness conspiracy, he’s mid-flight on an out-of-control aircraft with the cabin door locked. It’s just the first of a series of seemingly impossible situations from which he must extricate himself.

Every action hero demands a suitably villainous opponent. The author delivers this in style, introducing the reader to a man without morals, utterly ruthless and willing to sacrifice the lives of millions in pursuit of his warped objective. Those he needs to help him achieve it are used, and then discarded. Ironically his use of experimental medical treatments aimed at increasing his longevity has left him a husk of a man, reliant on others for his bodily needs. Unfortunately, his evil brain is still intact and if anything his immiment demise has made him even more fanatical.

A small island off the coast of Haiti is the location for the final showdown. Can Lamarque and his colleagues save the world from the catastrophic effects of a deadly cascade of events? Actually, perhaps it’s not just the action of humans we should fear. Maybe the universe has something against us as well.

The Coming Fire is a pacy action thriller that takes you on a whirlwind journey through a nightmare future.

My thanks to Moonflower Books for my digital proof copy.

In three words: Gripping, action-packed, immersive

About the Author

Greg’s first career was in theatre as actor, director and writer. He has lived and worked in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Madrid. Having worked as an interpreter at a variety of international institutions, in 2015 Greg returned to theatre. Since then, he has written and produced 25 plays and musicals. He took advantage of 2020’s lockdown to fulfil a long-term ambition to write a powerful thriller, and the Coming Darkness trilogy was the result.

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Book cover of The Coming Storm by Greg Mosse

#BlogTour #BookReview #Ad A Winter Grave by Peter May @riverrunbooks

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A Winter Grave Peter May Blog Tour FinalWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for A Winter Grave by Peter May. My thanks to Jess at Ransom PR for inviting me to take part in the tour and to riverrun for my review copy via NetGalley.

A Winter GraveAbout the Book

A TOMB OF ICE

A young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station in Kinlochleven discovers the body of a missing man entombed in ice.

A DYING DETECTIVE

Cameron Brodie, a Glasgow detective, sets out on a hazardous journey to the isolated and ice-bound village. He has his own reasons for wanting to investigate a murder case so far from his beat.

AN AGONIZING RECKONING

Brodie must face up to the ghosts of his past and to a killer determined to bury forever the chilling secret that his investigation threatens to expose.

Format: eARC (368 pages)                Publisher: riverrun
Publication date: 19th January 2023 Genre: Crime, Thriller

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My Review

A Winter Grave is set in Scotland but it’s not a Scotland we would recognise. The year is 2051 and Scotland has achieved independence and rejoined the European Union. However, at the same time, the effects of climate change on the world have become all too obvious. Whilst parts of the world are suffering extreme heat, prompting the migration of millions of people from Africa and Asia to Europe, great swathes of Scotland are now under water due to rising sea levels caused by the melting of the Greenland ice sheets and the country now has the climate of northern Norway.

As Brodie investigates the death of a man found frozen in the ice of a snow tunnel, it becomes clear his enemy is not just the person or persons responsible for the man’s death but the weather as well. Ferocious storms have become a frequent occurrence for the residents of Kinlochleven, resulting in power cuts and the loss of communications with the outside world for days at a time. Venturing out into a particularly violent storm, Brodie witnesses the extreme weather conditions for himself. ‘He seemed to be driving headlong into the gale. Hailstorms flew out of the darkness like sparks, deflecting off the windscreen… He could barely see the road ahead of him, hail blowing around and drifting like snow on the recently cleared tarmac.’

Alongside an absorbing and action-packed crime story, and the depiction of the potential impacts of climate change on the world, is Inspector Cameron Brodie’s deeply personal story, told through flashbacks to 2023. Brodie hasn’t long left on this earth but in the time remaining he wants to lay to rest the ghosts of the past, attempt a reconciliation and, perhaps, receive forgiveness. ‘It wasn’t until now, with his own death imminent, that he had been moved, finally, to drag all the skeletons from the closet, and lay them out to be judged.’ It’s a story of love, loss and sacrifice and I found the end of the book intensely moving.

For those who like action, there’s plenty of it and for those who like intrigue, there’s plenty of that as well. There’s even a role for future technology the prospect of which might either thrill you or appall you depending on how you feel about flying in a pilotless plane or living in a 3D printed home.  Add to this a central character prepared to give his all in one last fight and you have a totally gripping crime thriller that is chilling in more ways than one. This is the first book I’ve read by Peter May but it definitely won’t be the last.

In three words: Immersive, exciting, intense

Try something similar: The Coming Darkness by Greg Mosse

Peter MayAbout the Author

Peter May was born and raised in Scotland. He was an award-winning journalist at the age of twenty-one and a published novelist at twenty-six. When his first book was adapted as a major drama series for the BBC, he quit journalism and during the high-octane fifteen years that followed, became one of Scotland’s most successful television dramatists. He created three prime-time drama series, presided over two of the highest-rated serials in his homeland as script editor and producer, and worked on more than 1,000 episodes of ratings-topping drama before deciding to leave television to return to his first love, writing novels.

In 2021, he was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. He has also won several literature awards in France, received the USA’s Barry Award for The Blackhouse, the first in his internationally bestselling Lewis Trilogy; and in 2014 was awarded the ITV Specsavers Crime Thriller Book Club Best Read of the Year award for Entry Island. Peter now lives in South-West France with his wife, writer Janice Hally. (Photo: Facebook profile)

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