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  • 2027, New Madrid, Missouri

  • In the winter of 1811-1812 a series of earthquakes occurred in America’s heartland, near New Madrid, MO. These earthquakes are listed among the some of the largest earthquakes of known history and are credited with affecting the topography of the North American continent more than any other known ... Continue

    In the winter of 1811-1812 a series of earthquakes occurred in America’s heartland, near New Madrid, MO. These earthquakes are listed among the some of the largest earthquakes of known history and are credited with affecting the topography of the North American continent more than any other known earthquake. They were responsible for forming new lakes, changing the course of the Mississippi River, and destroying over 150,000 acres of forest. There are estimates that these earthquakes were felt strongly over an area of 50,000 square miles. Experts predict that there is a 90% chance of an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater occurring in the same area before the year 2040.

    The author of 2027, New Madrid, Missouri takes us back in time to the winter of 1811-1812 and puts us down smack in the middle of the action. We get to meet several people who are living and/or working in the area and spend many anxious minutes with them as they fight for their lives in the middle of one of the major seismic events in known history. The action is tense and the book moves along quickly. At the end of the book, the author follows a descendent of one of those New Madrid pioneers into the year 2027 just when the New Madrid fault produces another great quake. We then get to see several predictions of what exactly could happen in the St. Louis area if an earthquake of the same intensity of the 1811-1812 earthquakes were to occur.

    The author does a great job writing the action sequences while the earthquake is happening, however the dialog gets a bit stilted and his transitions are sometimes shaky. This one is another book that could have been helped by a decent editor.

    

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Eight years after the Louisiana Purchase, the western frontier of the United States extended only to the Mississippi River. There in the soggy inhospitable Delta of today's Missouri Bootheel, hardscrabble pioneers suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives against horrendous odds.

The Great New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12 left death and unimaginable destruction in their wake. Nuetzel chronicles the terror witnessed through the eyes of panicked victims as he recounts Vade Boncoeur's struggle for his family's survival.

But could it happen today? Nuetzel firmly believes that it will and he guides us through the sobering and shocking consequences of a twenty first century Armageddon.

• january2008Books for Review