A Town in Turmoil

Mammoth is a sleep little town, but this morning there's an earthquake followed by radio broadcasts that have the residents fleeing. One person, who doesn't think it's so bad, is Billy. He and his friends have targeted the town to rob the local bank. With no people in town this looks like an easy job.

Tori, Billy's daughter, is attending a camp for long distance runners outside of town. The earthquake shakes up the camp, but there seems to be no immediate danger until Billy and his friends show up. They can't get out of town because of all the residents clogging the roads, so they decide to go over the mountain where the camp is located.

The story moves between Billy and his gang, Tori, and the local police trying to figure out what is happening. The chapters are short, but moving back and forth quickly between so many characters can make the book hard to follow.

The novel is character driven and the author does a good job of showing us the character's hopes and dreams and how their perception of the world leads them to act the way they do. However, with so many characters, it's hard to become involved with one and be interested in their development.

I wasn't surprised by the incident driving the plot, it seemed quite obvious from the beginning. The only question was why

it happened. The issue isn't resolved until the end and by then it has become almost irrelevant.

I can't recommend this book unless you enjoy character driving novels that involve lots of characters. I found the book difficult to get into. I think I would have enjoyed it more if he had concentrated on only one of two characters.

I received this book from PR by the Book for this review.