Review: To Pay Paul

Synopsis:

An Eco-Thriller 17 Million Years in the Making

Seamus Quinlan is a geophysicist with a problem neighbor that also happens to be his employer-the Manhattan Project’s once top-secret Hanford Nuclear Site, currently the largest radioactive waste cleanup project anywhere on the planet.

After Seamus’s father succumbs to the cancer that killed the rest of his family, Seamus attempts to make something of the family’s barren acreage, while overseeing ground stability assessments for the Department of Energy in a region whose past was riddled by basalt lava flows, catastrophic floods, and seismic hijinks. Anomalies around the Quinlan farmhouse lead to a collapsing graveyard, sending Seamus on a subterranean quest during which he learns more about his family’s roots, decides to blow the whistle on a coming environmental catastrophe, and, not incidentally, falls in love with his colleague, Cody Getz. An improbable doomsday scenario ushered into the frightening realm of the plausible, To Pay Paul is a tale of how individuals survive when longstanding environmental debts finally come due.

Rating: 4-stars

Review:

To Pay Paul by Michael Scott Curnes is another incredible novel by the talented writer. He makes the characters so three dimensional it is hard to believe its fiction. I love epic tale so much! So much is riding on one thing, bring in loss of loved ones, and romantic feelings-things are about to get shaken up fast. Suspense, action, and a dark cloud looms over every scene. Yet, there is this hope that things just might end up okay. The whole book is driven by the characters. Seamus is the luring addictive hero in this novel. He goes through more than most characters. His journey is an emotional one that reminds me of Nicholas Sparks. Yet, it is far more edgy and dramatic. There are themes that popped in that are not my typical forte yet, they did not hinder the writer’s superb quality of writing. Michael Scott can write well. His characterization is amazing. I could feel what the characters were feeling. It’s that good.