The Apollo Murders: 1

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Given his military/aerospace background, this is a perhaps surprisingly creative and well-structured story that keeps the tension up, and even has some unexpected twists—by imbuing it with his unique knowledge, he lends it credibility even in some of the more far-fetched situations. When the military gets wind of these developments Kaz is instructed to convey new instructions to the Apollo 18 astronauts. One rather minor one is a geologist involved in the lunar program, who becomes a love interest for the more prominent CAPCOM, Kaz.

In fact, so many elements of The Apollo Murders were drawn from real life that Hadfield includes a chapter explaining the who’s, what’s, and where’s from that era.One astronaut is to stay in the vehicle, circle the moon, and await the two walking on the moon's surface. Knowing Commander Hadfield’s career allows you to understand the sources he drew from in writing The Apollo Murders. With a great deal of backstory to use as foundation, the story must begin slowly, but soon takes on a mind of its own and leaves the reader demanding more as things progress.

In Chris Hadfield thriller page turner a Apollo mission is launched set during the Cold war but things go wrong in the heart of space where American and Russian race for a hidden bounty. The book has garnered a lot of attention due to the author—there are 554 people waiting for it at my library. His spaceflights have seen him visit two space stations (Russia’s Mir and the International Space Station), perform two spacewalks, and fly on two different spacecraft. Hadfield manages to find a balance between the narrative tension involved in a thriller with the technical details space enthusiasts will be looking for. He manages to find a balance between the narrative tension involved in a thriller, with multiple characters and plot lines coming together for the climax, with the technical details space enthusiasts will be looking for.The USA learns of two potential threats: the Soviets operate a secretive orbital space station to spy on the Americans – and – they have landed a probe on the Moon for seemingly strategic reasons.

In reality, the last manned mission to the moon was America’s Apollo 17, but the jumping off point for this story is that there was actually an Apollo 18 done as a secret military operation. Clearly, Hadfield has extensive knowledge of equipment and operations employed during the Apollo era, which he employs to give absolute credibility to the story and make the reader feel all is actually true. Naturally, the technical aspects of space travel were aplenty and while fascinating, I found that the pacing of the story suffered occasionally because of it. He pulls from different perspectives as he highlights characters from both sides of the Cold War, which gives the reader a look into the systemic differences that between the two superpowers.

Backstories are plentiful, as are the moments of development, when pressure and politics enter the equation as well. Instead of just going to the moon and collecting some rocks, the astronauts need to photograph and hopefully sabotage a Soviet space station equipped with new cameras that will be able to take high resolution spy pictures of the US once it’s manned. The Russians have placed a high-resolution spy satellite in orbit and also a moon rover looking for valuable minerals on the surface. I knew going in that this is one of those books that relies on the author's name recognition to sell copies, but even with my low expectations, this wasn't good.