Over the course of only a few weeks, a toxic algal bloom has spread from the Pensacola, Florida, coast to the Atlantic Ocean. It\u2019s bright red and caused by microorganisms called dinoflagellates, and it\u2019s killing sea creatures and producing life-threatening anaphylactic reactions in humans. In the midst of this environmental disaster, 25-year-old Diane Nelson, an expert on dinoflagellates, scores a postdoctoral position as a researcher with the Florida-based Ocean Science and Climatology Foundation. She joins a research team headed by the famous Shaun Jenson and Susan Landry, and she\u2019s eager to use her skills to figure out the cause of the bloom and why it\u2019s been resistant to environmental intervention. It\u2019s a personal cause for her: She grew up on the Gulf Coast, and her mother and uncle still live there. However, her first day on the job is marked by chaos when a previous postdoc researcher, Matthew Toft, storms into the building with a gun,destroys his own research, and then dies by suicide in the lab, after saying, \u201cI\u2019m so sorry.\u201d Meanwhile, the algal bloom spreads further into the ocean, contaminates the water supply of several coastal states, and starts leaking toxins into the air. Diane\u2019s determined to come up with a plan to fix it\u2014and also find out the reason behind Toft\u2019s drastic actions. Kirtland uses her own background in marine biology and environmental science to spin an intriguing, action-packed tale about planetary ruin and human corruption. Diane is a smart, compelling protagonist; readers will enjoy her methodical research processes and the relationships she forms with her colleagues. Her quest to solve the mystery of the algal bloom is detailed, and the author enriches it with realistic dialogue. The supporting characters are also well developed and intriguing. Overall, readers are sure to find the real-world science behind this well-paced story fascinating\u2014and existentially terrifying.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the course of only a few weeks, a toxic algal bloom has spread from the Pensacola, Florida, coast to the Atlantic Ocean. It\u2019s bright red and caused by microorganisms called dinoflagellates, and it\u2019s killing sea creatures and producing life-threatening anaphylactic reactions in humans. In the midst of this environmental disaster, 25-year-old Diane Nelson, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}