The sci-fi in mystery/crime stories…
I’ve been amused by how environmentalists and anti-global warming activists (little not-so-innocent Greta, are you reading this?) are now finally abandoning their Frankenstein complexes and realizing that modern nuclear reactor tech is an effective alternative to fossil fuels. Long ago I concluded that hydroelectric, solar, and wind alternatives can’t possibly provide the power needed to support human civilization. (Of course, as our last US election shows, the use of the word “civilization” might be a stretch!) US “experts” have been slow to come aboard, but Europe (as usual!) outsmarted them long ago and now have reactors everywhere, decreasing their dependence on fossil fuel exports from fascist Middle Eastern and Russian providers.
That was a theme in my novel Gaia and the Goliaths, number seven and the last one published in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco” series. (It’s about a collaboration between a Russian oligarch and an American oilman to destroy French reactors. Number eight, Defanging the Red Dragon, is more about China than Russia; it’s free PDF download. See the list on the “Free Stuff & Contests” web page.)
Gaia is an example of prescient sci-fi (admittedly short-term science problems) playing an important role in a mystery/crime story. I published it in 2017. (A more recent example is Leonardo and the Quantum Code from the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” series; a novel published in 2021.) Nothing miraculous about that, of course. With my scientific background, I could examine the data and conclude, along with many climate experts, that dependence on fossil fuels will eventually kill our planet; but, unlike those so-called experts, I believe their proposed solutions will fail unless we forget our Frankenstein complex about nuclear power and use it, at least as a complement and solution in countries where the other options are impractical.
In my novel, progressive Detective Castilblanco has come to the same realization; his conservative partner, Detective Chen, follows the party line. The novel shows no clear winner—these are long-term issues—but the clear loser is Putin’s Russia. Like many other oil-producing countries (Iran, in particular), and Donald Trump (“Drill, baby, drill!”) in the US, dependence on fossil fuels will end one way or the other, i.e., with their economies crumbling while others surge because they’ve become independent on fossil fuels.
Yes, nuclear power can be and should be an important component of any policy to combat climate change. But I can just hear the critics: What do we do with the nuclear waste? I can facetiously say, “Give it all to Elon Musk!” He’s such a genius that he’ll figure out how to put it on the moon or send it into the sun or bury it in the Marianna Trench. Nuclear waste isn’t the problem.
What about heating of our waterways from coolant waters from the reactors? They’re already super-heated now by the global warming caused by using fossil fuels. Those two recent and disastrous hurricanes became so strong because Gulf waters are super-heated! Any modern reactor does far less damage than the sum total of damage caused by using fossil fuels. And of course, we can just use the coolant water for the baths and showers of visitors to Mar a Lago and the orange devil who lives there!
Okay, engineers and scientists need to study all this critically, not spew platitudes like Trump’s nominees that will be dedicated to rolling back regs for climate control (the chump’s promise to the moguls of the fossil fuel industries who helped finance his election). It’s likely that a balanced combination of nuclear, solar, and wind power sources is best (hydroelectric possibilities can’t help much longer). No one should expect Detective Castilblanco to do that. (And Gaia and the Goliaths couldn’t possibly be a good mystery/crime/thriller story if it were full of scientific details, could it?)
But we should expect that all the so-called “experts” (and not fascist spin-doctors!) to look calmly and logically at the options, not just as a source of political funding donated by the fossil fuel industry’s tycoons who, like Trump, are willing to destroy our world to satisfy their greed and thirst for power.
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Gaia and the Goliaths. A Russian oligarch and an American energy executive conspire to destroy nuclear reactors so that the fossil fuel industries can have free reign. One activist against global warming and her boyfriend discover the conspiracy, but she is murdered. In trying to find those responsible, Chen and Castilblanco must go far beyond their New York City neighborhoods and dig through a lot of international intrigue. Al crime story that’s all too believable and current, this novel is sold wherever quality ebooks are sold (even on Amazon), as are all seven books of the published series. Don’t miss this gripping read!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
