Random Things Tours: Emergency Drill by Chris Blackwater

 

Shortlisted for 2020 CWA Debut Dagger Award, Emergency Drill by Chris Blackwater starts slowly, in a kind of mathematically-controlled pace. You may need to wait a bit, until figuring out what you are supposed to worry about. 

Danny Verity - what I name to give to a character, anyway - a Junior offshore medic, starts his job assignment on Cuillin Alpha Oil platform during strage times. The satelite system was damaged and the platform is isolated for a while from the rest of the world. There are some technical shortcomings taking place as well. Some of his colleagues are becoming nervous, some very nervous. Suddenly Verity looks like the only one that can figure out what it is all about.

Although the race sounds against the clock, the story has its own inner pace, too slow, in my opinion. However, I appreciated the systematic, engineering-like way in which Danny is putting facts and suspicions together in order to reach a satisfactory solution. Before it is not too late and all of them are supposed to get lost for ever on the North Atlantic shores.

Another plot line which I would have expected more elaborated regards the interaction between the characters. They are under special, emergency circumstances and some of them, if not all of them just met to work together, and I was expecting a more compley dynamic between them. 

The end is good though, and I only partially expected it. As the story is exclusively taking place under the pressure of time and in a very limited and precisely located environment it does have a strong mystery fragrance of whodunnit. 

However, Emergency Drill is an exciting read, especially if you are looking for a crime novel set in a very special setting. Thus, one may have a lot of expectations from a novel situation, but nevertheless appreciate what was done out of the story and follow breathless the entincing plot.

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own