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In the opening pages of this novel, what commences with a charade aboard a cruise ship where neither person is who they claim to be culminates with the ruthless murder of a prolific climate scientist. The names Ingrid Halverson and Mark O’Mara, while both aliases, set the stakes quite high for what is to come. Nothing is off limits, secrets abound, and yet there is an Orwellian Big Brother-type presence that seems to have eyes on all the happenings, however discreet.
Bleicher’s fearless writing is indicative of both his knack for storytelling and a comprehensive undertaking in understanding the details of the climate crisis facing the modern world. Center stage is the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a scathing critique from renowned climate scientist Dr. Hartquist (alias Ingrid Halverson) pertaining to the IPCC’s oversight on greenhouse gasses like methane and the pressing detrimental effect they will have on the climate.
With just one of many impending risks on the horizon, like small islands flooding, all eyes are on world leaders. At the core of Dr. Hartquist’s proposal to battle climate change is to install a tropospheric veil over the Arctic. However, with her demise and the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Accord, all remaining parties seem to be in all talk, no action mode. It is at this moment, on the heels of the AOSIS 2021 conference, that one person in particular, Mohamad Ibrahim of Maldives, decides that he cannot simply wait and watch while his hometown drowns in the rising sea. Teaming up with UN Ambassadors Kamla Panday of Tobago, Anarood Doyal of Mauritius, and Wang Shu of Singapore, Ibrahim and co. embark on a perilous journey to essentially apply experimental treatments, the veil, to treat Mother Nature’s terminal disease—climate change.
Nevertheless, in almost cinematic fashion, it is mind-numbing to see the layers of division among the various government entities, all of whom apparently acknowledge the need for action, yet none of whom have the urgency to implement the SRM veil. Taking the plot deeper, what is fascinating is that perhaps for the first time, money is not central to the dilemma. On the contrary, it is very much a political gamesmanship with definite “international and domestic political risks.” Somehow, tucked in between a breakneck plot of global proportions and a scintillating murder mystery, the author finds a way to weave in a romantic relationship that only serves to deepen the attachment and sway the decision-making between the key players. As the character development flows seamlessly, so does the change in location, taking audiences to exotic locales like Phuket and Jakarta. On a stylistic level, the narrative compels audiences to stay engaged in the unraveling plot. While it is undoubtedly Bleicher’s ability to take fundamentally different pieces (e.g., murder mystery, climate crisis, and romance) and turn them into a cohesive whole without any hiccups that makes the work incredibly compelling, it is the “at-all-costs” mindset of the main characters as they accept their call-to-action that is the key that makes the engine go.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review