A former Customs and Police Officer, Andrew Hill’s first book in a crime series set in the New Forest, where he lived for 30 years, will be published in Spring 2022. An avid reader across the crime genre and regular at crime writing festivals, he now lives in West Sussex and works in property.
When the author has flown two Space Shuttle missions and was the commander of the International Space Station, you know that the technical details in the story are going to be accurate, integral to the story and lend the reader a real sense of being ‘there’.
It’s early in 1973 and NASA’s flight controller, Kaz Zemeckis, is heading back to Houston, with the next planned mission coming up. But, Apollo 18 isn’t like any other previous flight. This will be the U.S.A.’s first all-military spaceflight with an, as yet, undesignated purpose. Zemeckis, a former F-4 Phantom pilot, is primarily set to be the crew military liaison.
The crew, Luke Hemmings, Tom Hoffman and Michael Esdale are running simulations for their upcoming mission, but things are about to change. In what appears to be a tragic helicopter accident, Tom Hoffman is killed and is replaced as commander of Apollo 18 by Chad Miller.
All this is set against the Cold War Space Race with the Russians, our knowledge of Nixon’s impending downfall from the Watergate break-in the previous year and a slowly-ending Vietnam War.
Of course, we must have some antagonists and the pre-glasnost USSR nicely fits the bill. What is the purpose of their new satellite and unmanned lunar rover? What will Apollo 18’s objective be, now that it’s been designated as a military mission? Is everyone involved quite who they appear to be?
Hadfield adroitly handles the action, transporting the reader from Houston to Washington DC, on to Baikonur, Cape Canaveral, the vastness of space and the surface of the Moon. The claustrophobia of being inside a space capsule, the sheer power and forces involved in launching a spacecraft and the cold loneliness of space are all brought to us with such authenticity. Nothing more than you’d expect from a man who has experienced them firsthand.
For fans of Tom Clancy techno-thrillers, this is a very worthy ‘next read’. A white-knuckle ride of multi G-force twists and turns, a quarter of a million miles from home. A terrific read.
