[Hodder 01] • Chain Reaction

Our way of life has been contaminated…

‘Both humanly and scientifically plausible. Read and be scared’ The Sun

John and Julia Cartwright are deeply disturbed when they notice a drastic change in their daughter Maureen. She has become strangely lethargic and suffers from unexplained nausea. A sinister possibility occurs to John when he discovers evidence of contamination from a tin of baked beans.

Adding fuel to the fire, photographic paper he has stored at home has clearly been damaged by something.

A chilling possibility emerges … radioactive contamination.

The same occurrences are soon reported in homes, schools and organisations across the country.

A glass of water – a cigarette – a stash of pills…

Everything has the potential to be lethal.

But nobody is able to answer the key questions: how, and since when?

Where has it come from?

Someone, somewhere, has failed and the consequences are horrific. A disaster is unfolding and the Atomic Development Commission set out to investigate.

The task is complex but one fact remains throughout all lines of enquiry: no one is immune to the force of contamination…

Chain Reaction is a gripping science fiction thriller, in which the very-real threat of radioactive devastation is brought to terrifying reality.

Praise for Christopher Hodder-Williams:

‘Only too horrifyingly plausible. Mr. Hodder Williams’ book is a first class mushroom cloud thriller’ Julian Symons, Sunday Times

‘A plausible story […] even the manufacture of baked beans is made exciting.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘Very good indeed: an original, realistic, only too possible account […] combining the elements of science fiction, the straight novel and the thriller.’ MANCHESTER GUARDIAN

‘May scare the wits out of a good many readers.’ BELFAST TELEGRAPH

‘Utterly credible.’ DAILY EXPRESS

‘Secures for its author a comfortable place among the best catastrophe writers — Verne, Wyndham and Wells.’ – Times Literary Supplement

‘Well told and thrilling and — what is rare in tales of this kind — the end is entirely satisfactory.’ – Kingsley Amis, Daily Mail

‘Both humanly and scientifically plausible. Read and be scared’ The Sun

‘Horrible plausibility.’ – Punch

‘Mr. Hodder-Williams handles this way-out material most expertly’ Glasgow Herald

Christopher Hodder-Williams was an English writer, mainly of science fiction, but he wrote novels about aviation and espionage as well. Before his career in writing, Hodder-Williams joined the army in 1944, and served in the Middle East and lived in Kenya and New York, later settling in the UK. Many of his books are early examples of what would later be called techno-thrillers. He also worked as a composer and lyricist, and wrote numerous plays for television.

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