The book begins in December 1962. We meet Joseph (Joe) Marr, a Doctor who has just been found guilty of murder and imprisoned in HMP Queen’s Bench near Nottingham. Along with his cellmate Melvyn, they are woken up early by a wailing alarm. They are told the Russians under Khrushchev have launched a nuclear bomb.
Along with the 500 inmates, there are prison staff including Chief Warden Otley and Governor Crabb and they all need to go into the nuclear fallout shelter for their best chance of survival. Joe ends up in Room 3 along with Melvyn and other prisoners, but once they realise he’s the only doctor amongst them, Joe joins the shelter’s command team.
I don’t really want to tell you much more of the story, as you should read it for yourself. However, after getting into the story and expecting the emphasis to be on the prisoners, we then see another viewpoint – that of a girl called Enola Thompson in 2017. This was surprising, but it added an extra aspect to the story, rather than solely concentrating on the rather claustrophobic conditions of the shelter. The two stories do eventually link up later in the novel.
From reading the first chapter, I was straight into the story, invested in Joe and what was going to happen, as well as thinking many times “What would I do in this situation?” and vehemently hoping none of us ever find out. The novel shows how different people react in a crisis, which is always an interesting social experiment. It also made me feel very thirsty! (You’ll understand if you read it!)
The book is completely absorbing. Often, I’ll read several books at once, but with this one, I just wanted to keep reading it, and no other books, as I wanted to find out what was going to happen.
I started reading this book just a day after Putin’s latest nuclear threat to the West, which was probably not the best idea, but at least this story is set in the 1960s, not the present day. There were also a few poignant references to the Queen.
I am one of those kids who watched Threads on TV and who have been traumatised ever since, yet I am still fascinated by nuclear war and survival novels. Thankfully, The Calculations of Rational Men didn’t give me nightmares.
I tend to believe what the main characters say in books, but it soon becomes clear through flashbacks that Joe Marr doesn’t always tell the truth. He’s hard to pigeonhole into “good guy” or “bad guy” – as I suppose many of us are – but this means you are kept on your toes, not knowing whether to trust him, or his view of things. This was a bit unsettling, but added to the tension of the novel.
The novel was close to being a 5-star rated book, but I wasn’t particularly happy with the latter part of the book, which (no spoilers!) went in a direction I wasn’t expecting, so it’s a 4-star from me.
BLURB
THE UNITED KINGDOM AND HER ALLIES HAVE BEEN TARGETED IN A WIDESPREAD NUCLEAR ATTACK
December, 1962. Just months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the five hundred men of HMP Queen’s Bench have found themselves in the midst of a new thermonuclear nightmare.
WE DO NOT KNOW THE STATUS OF OUR TOWNS AND CITIES. WE SHALL NOT KNOW THEIR FATE FOR SEVERAL DAYS
Prisoners, wardens and soldiers must now work together to forge a new future, even if some inside the shelter can only think of how to turn the situation to their personal advantage.
RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT WILL PRESENT THE GREATEST RISK TO HEALTH. MEDICAL STAFF AND SUPPLIES ARE AVAILABLE.
Caught in the very centre of the power struggles is Dr Joseph Marr. Just days into serving a life sentence for murder, he is given the responsibility for the health of all the men of HMP Queen’s Bench. But the question for him now is: how does he ensure those in the shelter survive?
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