Publishers Weekly
07/29/2024
Former flight attendant Newman (Drowning) parlays her professional experience into another nail-biter centered on a commercial airline accident. Nearly 300 people die when the pilot of a plane en route from Minneapolis to Seattle suffers a heart attack and crashes into a nuclear power plant shortly after taking off. The resulting leak at the Waketa, Minn., energy facility raises twin concerns: first, that 900 locals will be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation; second, that the breach could ignite an impossible to extinguish fire that would spread radioactive material across the entire Midwest. Waketa fire chief Steve Tostig spearheads an effort, with support from Nuclear Emergency Support specialist Joss Vance, to contain the radiation and save the country. Like Michael Crichton and other disaster novelists before her, Newman loops several ordinary people into her sprawling narrative, including Waketa schoolteachers and employees at the power plant, but she sets herself apart by giving notable weight and color to the human-scale dramas. She doesn’t skimp when it comes to action, either, resulting in a rip-roaring adventure that’s anchored in palpable emotion. This should satisfy the author’s fans and win her new ones. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
-—Amazon Best Book of the Month
-—A People magazine Best Book of the Week
"Worst Case Scenario is the best thriller I’ve read so far this year. A jetliner crashes in the worst possible location – and I mean theworst – the site of a nuclear plant. It’s a chilling idea with great characters and near-perfect execution. T. J. Newman is the kind of gifted storyteller that comes along every 5 to 10 years. Don’t miss Worst Case Scenario."—James Patterson
"An extraordinary book. T.J. Newman has written the kind of novel where you can't wait to see what happens next and that you don't want to end. It's a stunning page-turner that you will read fast and tell family and friends about for a long time. It feels like you're inside this book and with these amazing characters as they face one impossible challenge after another. I loved this book and I know you will love it. And it's going to make for an incredible movie." —Don Winslow
“Newman's newest thriller is a must-read, and continues her reign as the best in the genre.”—USA Today
"A chilling tale of disaster, bravery, and sacrifice."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A heartpounder and one of the year's best thrillers."
—People
“[Newman] sets herself apart by giving notable weight and color to the human-scale dramas. She doesn’t skimp when it comes to action, either, resulting in a rip-roaring adventure that’s anchored in palpable emotion. This should satisfy the author’s fans and win her new ones.”—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Falling
“Falling is the best kind of thriller (for me as a reader anyway). Characters you care deeply about. Nonstop, totally authentic suspense.”—James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“T. J. Newman has taken a brilliant idea, a decade of real-life experience, and crafted the perfect summer thriller. Relentlessly paced and unforgettable.”—Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Attention, please: T. J. Newman has written the perfect thriller! Such a cool, high-concept idea: commercial airline pilot forced to make the ultimate life-or-death choice. Newman’s background in the air grounds the story in reality, while her writing amps up the suspense to unbearable levels. Terrific and terrifying, a true page-turner. A must-read for summer vacation—but my advice is, don't start this book until you’ve gotten off the plane.”—Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
“Heart pounding. Heart wringing. Heart STOPPING! A great book! One of those where you’re afraid to turn the next page, but you can’t stop.”—Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series
“Amazing . . . Intense suspense, shocks and scares plus chilling insider authenticity make this one very special.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Think Speed on a passenger jet—with the cockpit dials turned up to supersonic.”—Ian Rankin, #1 internationally bestselling author
Praise for Drowning
“Drowning is the first terrific thriller of 2023. Honest. It has at least a dozen legit cliffhangers and a dozen huggable characters you can’t stop rooting for. T.J. Newman has the goods. Make that the greats!”—James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A stunningly vivid tour de force! Gripping. Shocking. Heartbreaking. You will not be able to come up for air until the very last page!”—Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Fall
“Stunning, emotional, and unforgettable. Drowning reads like Apollo 13 underwater.”—Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of City on Fire and The Border
“Masterful.”—Patricia Cornwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Drowning is The Poseidon Adventure meets The Martian. It is another can’t-put-down, edge-of-your-seat thriller from T. J. Newman, one of our most exciting new authors.”—Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain and The Island
“Drowning is pure adrenaline and all heart. Gripping, relentless, effortlessly assured, T. J. Newman’s thriller is tense and moving. You’ll be grabbed from page one as the crew and passengers of a downed airliner fight for survival and rescuers race to reach them. Drowning is an incredible ride—strap in, brace, and remember to breathe.”—Meg Gardiner, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2024-08-16
One disaster triggers another in a cascade of perils.
A commercial pilot suffers a widow-maker heart attack at 35,000 feet over Minnesota with almost 300 passengers and crew aboard. The copilot is trapped in the lavatory. A flight attendant struggles hopelessly with the controls as the jet noses downward. There will be no miracles. The first two chapters of Newman's latest are the most frightening imaginable, with everything that could possibly go wrong going wrong. The plane clips a power line and shatters, with the largest piece hitting the Clover Hill nuclear power plant. The impact cracks a wall in a building containing water that cools spent fuel rods. If those rods overheat, radiation flowing into the adjacent Mississippi could turn the river basin into a dead zone all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. Primary electrical distribution is severed. Debris blocks roads. A flaming wing crushes a family’s car. The novel is aptly named but for the lack of a plural: This string of worst-case scenarios is expertly designed to scare the bejesus out of us. And yet it all seems plausible. Luckily, there are heroes, but the reader had best not get emotionally invested in all of them, as they pay a heavy price. Meanwhile, the pool is losing water that could cause a fuel rod fire and an “uncontrollable spread of invisible, toxic, cancer-causing particulates” that would be “in everything we touched, ate, drank, and breathed, for…for forever.” The accident may have massive global implications, and the clock is ticking. “Nuclear waste is toxic for millennia,” a scientist warns the U.S. president. So brace yourselves, readers. This one is frightening.
A chilling tale of disaster, bravery, and sacrifice.
