Bea Reviews Surface Tension by Mike Mullin

Publisher: Tanglewood
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: May 8th, 2018
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*  | Indiebound |
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Blurb from goodreads:

After witnessing an act of domestic terrorism while training on his bike, Jake is found near death, with a serious head injury and unable to remember the plane crash or the aftermath that landed him in the hospital.

A terrorist leader’s teenage daughter, Betsy, is sent to kill Jake and eliminate him as a possible witness. When Jake’s mother blames his head injury for his tales of attempted murder, he has to rely on his girlfriend, Laurissa, to help him escape the killers and the law enforcement agents convinced that Jake himself had a role in the crash.

Mike Mullin, author of the Ashfall series, delivers a gripping story with memorable characters and all-too-real scenarios.

My Thoughts:

I love Mullins' Ashfall series and I was intrigued when I heard he was writing a thriller. I was curious to see how Mullins handled a thriller and he didn't disappoint. "Surface Tension" was a wild ride, fast paced and high on action.

"Surface Tension" starts with a bang and never lets up. Jake is a high school student and a serious cyclist. While out training for a bike race, he sees a plane crash, then is injured and wakes up in the hospital. The details he remembers don't align with that people are telling him, the police are suspicious, and then someone tries to kill him.

Jake, Laurissa, and Betsy are vivid, memorable, strong characters. They are strong, resourceful, smart, sometimes cocky, sometimes impulsive, but ultimately believable and enjoyable. They felt like real teens and not a cleaned up version suitable for adults. Jake made mistakes but most of the time his intentions were good. He's in a race to save his life and top stop the terrorists from doing more damage. The police believe he's involved with the terrorists and treat him accordingly. Federal agencies are involved also and I absolutely loathed one of the agents. He was no better than the terrorists, just working for the US, sadly. He was every bit as fanatical and unethical as the people he was fighting.

While "Surface Tension" had some unbelievable moments, much of it was frighteningly plausible and possible. I read it in one sitting, gobbling it up, and later had to go back and re-read to catch some of the details I had missed the first time around. "Surface Tension" combined memorable characters, tight plotting, thorough research (a trademark trait of Mullin's), a (mostly) realistic story line, and made for an utterly engaging story.