The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I tend to be skeptical of novels written by celebrities but this one is a legitimate thriller. The author is a former astronaut and obviously knows his stuff scientifically and technically, which adds a lot of plausibility and just plain interesting detail. In an alternate history 1973 NASA is sending one last Apollo mission to the moon. But shortly before launch they learn that the USSR has put a spy satellite in orbit that will uncover many US secrets so the NASA team is tasked with taking care of that in its initial Earth orbit before shooting off to the moon. Meanwhile the USSR has its own secrets and objectives. Things do not go as planned for either country. There’s plenty of suspense and clever plot twists but I’d better stop here to avoid spoilers. As the title makes clear, some people don’t make it. For those like me who are old enough to remember those days it all seems quite plausible. Real persons, like Nixon, Kissinger, Andropov, Al Shepard, Deke Slayton, etc. appear in the book. It was a bit slow for the first 150 pages or so, but it quickly became a page turner after that.