The Anomaly (Ruger)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
One of the quickest reads in quite a while. I was trying to finish before an online book club meeting that a colleague was organizing, but I just wasn't able to get there in time. It started a little slow for me but picked up quickly. I spent a few hours Friday and Saturday finishing off about half the book. Not a usual thing for me. I also nearly dropped my iPad reading the same page at bedtime. This, unfortunately, is usual for me, and why I really should read on my phone more often.
The story is basically what if The X-Files was actually a bunch of You-Tubers with their own show and a handful of conspiracy viewers. There's probably a better analogy, but the closest I thought of was "Ghost Hunters", which I don't watch, and I couldn't tell you the names of others.
You could also toss in a little bit of Indiana Jones.
Nolan Moore is the "hero" of the piece. He's the on-air talent, explaining conspiracies, and looking for answers, which the crew doesn't usually find. But that's fine, so long as people kept searching. Once things are known, people will stop searching.
The crew goes to the Grand Canyon to search for a cave found a century ago by another explorer, G. E. Kincaid, who reported findings to the Smithsonian, but everything there has been retracted, buried or denied. The crew consists of Ken and Molly (I forget their exact roles, Ken is the producer?) and Pierre (the cameraman). Along with them are Gemma, a reporter doing a story on Nolan, and Feather, a young hippie-type representative from the new sponsor of the program that's paying for the second season. Finally, there's Dylan, who pilots their raft down the river.
The story unfolds slowly and the group is about to give up when Pierre spots a discoloration in the rock, purely by accident. They climb up and in and eventually find a shaft, bringing them up to the level when Kincaid said the cave should be. The entrance is sealed with rocks and mortar. They didn't want this place to be found.
This level, and the shaft that brought them up here were not natural but the works of man ... or someone. This is an important find, and Nolan is content to let the "big boys" have at it to preserve the integrity of the site. But it wouldn't hurt to have a little look, right? They earned it, and the camera is rolling. And they need footage.
They find a corridor into a large chamber. And then thanks to an accident, they get sealed in. They have little food and water with them. And things are about to get strange.
It gets weird and creepy after that, and you're never too sure if someone will lie or die. (Spoiler: it's not an absolute, to-the-last-man bloodbath.) You wonder if Nolan will develop feelings for the no-nonsense, this-is-all-bunk Gemma, especially since he's split from his wife Kristy. And you wonder who, or what, is working against them.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Glad I read it. There's a sequel, that maybe I'll look into.
Library e-book.
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