The Moonpool

Written by P. T. Deutermann

Narrated by Mel Foster

I remembered it from high school chemistry, one of those experiments where we made hydrogen. It was more of an acidic sensation on the palate than a real smell, but I recognized it. The pile of spent fuel at the bottom was beginning to outgas. Next would come the fire to end all fires.…

A private detective working in Wilmington, North Carolina, is found dead in a gas-station restroom, apparently poisoned. But when her body sets off radiation alarms in the pathologist’s office, suspicion falls on the nearby Helios nuclear power plant, a heavily guarded facility with supposedly fail-safe procedures.

As the FBI, local police, and the power plant’s own security team investigate, ex-cop Cam Richter, head of the agency that employed the dead woman, begins his own inquiries. What was his detective investigating? And how could one person be poisoned by radiation without others being exposed?

Cam soon finds himself up against powerful forces that will stop at nothing to keep the plant’s problems secret. The most vulnerable part of Helios is its “moonpool”—the radioactive storage pond that cools spent but volatile reactor fuel and must be kept completely full. Racing against time, Cam discovers an inside threat, a plan to use the plant’s own systems to begin an unstoppable, disastrous sequence of events.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: May 27, 2008
• ISBN: 9781423336204

P. T. Deutermann

P.T. DEUTERMANN is the noted author of many previous novels based on his experiences as a senior staff officer in Washington and at sea as a Navy Captain, and later, Commodore. His WWII works include The Last Paladin and Pacific Glory, both of which won the W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, Iwo, 26 Charlie, The Hooligans, The Nugget, Sentinels of Fire, The Commodore, Trial By Fire, and The Iceman. He lives with his wife of 56 years in North Carolina.

Reviews for The Moonpool

[ecw0647 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book to read on trains, cars, and planes. I rather enjoy most Deutermann and have no need to recount the plot here. It's a bit fantastical but one doesn't really expect much realism from thrillers anyway, I did like Frick and Frack, however. Of course, the bag guy raises snakes.

[thejazzmonger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another good Deutermann story. He sets up very intriguing scenarios, creates good characters and always (always_) teaches me something. Those ingredients, and his dependability to deliver them, keep me coming back for another dose. I like this guy a lot!

[readinggeek451 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Retired cop, now a private investigator, gets mixed up in an investigation of radiation poisoning, probably connected to the local nuclear power plant. He runs afoul of Homeland Security, and things get very hairy indeed.Not Deutermann's best book, but not his worst, either.