Library Journal
When a teenager is killed and another badly burned as they happen upon a natural gas reservoir, geochemists Gus Wilson and Kitty Cochrane are called in to analyze the mountain of gas sitting beneath an area of Scottish countryside owned by the unpleasant London businessman Bernard Morris. Kitty tends to be rather foolhardy, risking her job and making brash decisions, but she has good sense enough to fall madly in love with Morris's estate bailiff, James MacEwan, who of course happens to be the story's hero. All's well that ends well; the "big bang" takes a few lives but never develops into a full-blown catastrophe. The novel is burdened by lots of technical explanations of geochemistry and far too many wooden, one-dimensional characters, but that does not keep it from being a first-rate thriller. Max Marlow is the collaborative nom de plume of husband-and-wife team Christopher Nicole and Diana Bachman. A nice buy for libraries with disaster thriller readers.Alice DiNizo, Raritan P.L., N.J.