A murderer stalks the post-apocalyptic ruins of the Pacific Northwest.
Available in ebook and paperback from:
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iTunes - should be available later today.
Audiobooks will be availalble, and hopefully soon. Book 20 is being recorded as I write, so should be out in October, with Book 21 recorded soon after (and Brawl of the Worlds 2). Sorry for the delay.
A year after the outbreak and nuclear war, very few in the Northern Hemisphere have survived. Fourteen thousand Europeans and Canadians found safety behind the great defensive walls built across Nova Scotia. When they are attacked by piratical bandits who now control the ruins of New York, they have no choice but to flee.
Where the evacuation of Britain was a bloodbath, the Southern Pacific fared better. Survivors thrive in fortified enclaves in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Thousands of Canadian refugees found a new home in Australia’s Northern Territory, albeit living in hastily built shanty towns where water is scarce and crime is rife. Now they want to return home.
While Bill Wright organises the evacuation of Nova Scotia, Kim and Sholto remain in the Pacific Northwest, searching for a new home. Their plans are upended when a plane arrives carrying pilgrims travelling onward to the Middle East, a claimant for the presidency of the old United States, and a killer in disguise.
After an assassination attempt on the pilgrims’ leadership, surveying British Columbia and Washington State is put on hold as the search for the killers begins. Finding the shot-caller behind the attack is the responsibility of Commissioner Tess Qwong, whose hunt takes her from crocodile-filled rivers of Australia’s Northern Territory to the densely packed refugee camp the exiled Canadians call home.
Set among the radioactive desolation of British Columbia, the undead-filled ruins of Washington State, and the exiled Canadians’ capital in Australia’s Northern Territory, Bill and Kim’s dreams of creating a new and better world are fading, while the prospect of war only grows stronger.
Coming Next
Surviving the Evacuation 22: Letters From Yesterday - As law and order breaks down in Alma, and as the pirates harry their retreat, Bill races against time to finish the evacuation of Quebec. When Jay finds a letter from a survivor to her missing boyfriend, he decides to follow the clues left therein and find them both. No one can be left behind.
Brawl of the Worlds 3: Misplaced in Space
Surviving the Evacuation 23: Postcards From Tomorrow - Tuck’s return to Europe, and the pilgrims voyage to the Holy Land.
Surviving the Evacuation 24: Grandpa Jack
Strike a Match: Blackout
(And there’ll probably be a hundred or so more books after that, but I think that’s enough plots to be thinking of at once.)
Book 21 takes place concurrently with Book 20. It was originally going to be a few short chapters in a book otherwise dominated by Jay and Bill’s journey to the west. But after a few pages it became clear that working through exactly where, (and where not) the survivors might live, and creating the framework of how they’ll live, deserved a whole book. Because a lot of Kim and Sholto's research involves staring at maps and screens, I added in a murder mystery / thriller subplot that was originally going to take place later on. Why Bill didn’t mention these calamitous events to Chester and Jay is explained as Bill not wanting the pirates to learn of it. Of course, the real reason is that I hadn’t planned to include it here. I think it worked out well, though.
I’d recommend enjoying this book with chicory coffee (which surely counts as a tea, doesn’t it? It must do. It’s a root. You can make tea from roots.) and Vegemite pastries, but definitely not crocodile steak sandwiches.
Happy reading,
Frank :)