Flood

by Richard Doyle

Book Overview

Flood is a devastating and compulsive thriller that reads like fact. The country has suffered floods on an unprecedented scale in recent years, but have we seen the worst, an inundation that threatens millions of lives? Doyle's vision is incontestable, backed up by over twenty-five years of research. Flood is the disaster novel of today. A storm rages over the north of Britain, a troop carrier founders in the Irish Sea, flood indicators go off the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0099429691
• ISBN13: 9780099429692
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Arrow Books
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant update of DELUGE, and far better!

In 1976, Richard Doyle wrote a disaster novel called DELUGE, about London flooding. This was written before the Thames Barrier was built, and such a disaster was after that inconceivable. However, when you read this updated and much more realistic version, you will be left wondering whether the Barrier will be safe enough to stop a massive tidal surge. Not only that, in this story a tanker explodes, hitting oil refineries in Canvey Island , Essex, just east of London, causing a massive burning oil slick to head for the capital. The British Government's people - Home Secretary Venetia Maitland and Royal Navy troubleshooter Roland Raikes do all they can to prevent the disaster from getting worse as the burning flood tide heads at an alarming pace towards London. Richard Doyle has certainly done his research into how such a huge disaster could occur and just who it would affect. The locations featured are as authentic as you could get - the Van Ommeren oil refinery in Essex is a place I used to work next door to and brought back some memories. The descriptions of the fire and flood destroying landmarks is so well told it's unsettling at times, but this is a book you just cannot stop reading. There are no main characters, apart from, perhaps Raikes and Maitland, this story is told as-it-happens in a present tense making you feel you are there, the disaster itself is the main element focused on. There are assorted subplots of people being rescued from the London Underground, the THames Barrier and how it fails, schoolchildren escaping the Millennium Dome and shoppers trapped at Bluewater retail city - and a massive inferno at Canary Wharf tower. Overall, very frightening and hard to fault, and a book that makes compelling reading!