What if instead of canceling NASA's Apollo 18 mission, Nixon had instead turned the funding question over to the military? And what if that military had decided that the mission was critical in order to prevent Russia from beating the US? Not just to control of the moon, but to getting the first spy stations and satellite's into the skies above earth? Those are the questions former astronaut Chris Hadfield uses as a jumping off point for his debut thriller, The Apollo Murders.
As the novel opens Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis, a former astronaut candidate turned intelligence officer, arrives in Houston about a month before Apollo 18 is scheduled to take off. He's there to let the team know that their mission has shifted as intelligence sources have revealed more of the Soviet's plans. Though the change of plans upsets the team, they're used to politics playing a role behind the scenes in everything they do. And knowing that this is a military mission means that even more fingers will be in the pie. So they're able to adjust, even after the death of one of their teammates. The mission must go on. But making sure it does so safely? That's part of Kaz's job and he's finding that there are perhaps plots within plots and even he doesn't know who all the players are.
We read this for a recent discussion of the Lakeview Mystery Book Group and though many felt the novel took a bit too long to get going and sometimes bogged down in the minutia of space flight, the thrilling second half more than made up for that. And all were fascinated by the peek behind the scenes into a space race and the political machinations of the competitors in that race.