“Because if life can go quantum, it literally changes existence as we know it.”
Interference, Brad Parks
𝙩𝙬: violence, murder (Please contact me for clarifications.)
genre: medical fiction/thriller, suspense, police procedural
Quick Take
A medical, suspense thriller that takes you on a non-stop ride through the quantum universe, greed, and a wife’s quest to stop at nothing to find her missing husband.
Review
Brad Parks is an established thriller writer that I hadn’t read until I requested an ARC of Interference. For this standalone novel, Brad Parks has gained a lifelong reader (me). For anyone not familiar with his work, he is the ONLY author to have won the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Awards, three of American crime fiction’s most prestigious prizes (taken from author bio on last page). I can absolutely see why once I read Interference.
As a fan of both thrillers and sci-fi, this one breathed new life into some of my favorite genres.
Some sci-fi lovers may find this one a little flat for their taste as it does focus more heavily on the thriller aspect with the scientific quantum realm weaved into the core of the action. I’m not unfamiliar with quantum physics but I am not in any way qualified to discuss it at length and I’m pretty sure Brad Parks knew that when writing. He made it very easy to understand the more abstract nature of some of the concepts and it didn’t distract from the narrative.
The sense of wonder and awe at the vastness of the universe and all things seen and unseen, was enthralled by this story and allowed me to enjoy it from many perspectives: the (arm chair) crime solver, scientist-at-heart, speculation queen, and wife.
And I’m still over here wondering “Where does quantum physics end and the classical world begin?”
Final Verdict
★★★★☆
As a fan of both thrillers and sci-fi, this one breathed new life into some of my favorite genres.
I highly recommend Interference to any and all thriller AND sci-fi fans.
**I will be hosting a giveaway courtesy of Megan Beatie Communications {partner} on my Instagram, so head over and look for this post!**
Favorite Quotes
We all have our illusions in this world, and we cling to them. We think we’re standing on a broad, sturdy cruise ship of an existence when really we’re floating in a life raft.
Interference, Brad Parks
There’s no certainty. Just probability. Einstein hated this. “Gott wuffelt nicht,” he fumed. Commonly translated as: God doesn’t play dice with the universe.
Interference, Brad Parks
But the smallest life form, a virus, is ten to the negative seven meters. And some bacteria aren’t much larger. We’ve already surpassed that sizewise. Could we actually interfere a living thing? Or is life, in fact, the dividing line between the quantum world and the classical one?
Interference, Brad Parks
Synopsis:
From international bestselling author Brad Parks comes an emotional, heart-pounding thriller that explores the scientific unknown—and one woman’s efforts to save her husband from its consequences.
Quantum physicist Matt Bronik is suffering from strange, violent seizures that medical science seems powerless to explain—much to the consternation of his wife, Brigid.
Matt doesn’t think these fits could be related to his research, which he has always described as benign and esoteric. That, it turns out, is not quite true: Matt has been prodding the mysteries of the quantum universe, with terrible repercussions for his health. And perhaps even for humanity as a whole.
Then, in the midst of another seizure, Matt disappears. When foul play is feared, there is no shortage of suspects. Matt’s research had gained the attention of Chinese competitors, an unscrupulous billionaire, and the Department of Defense, among others.
With Matt’s life in clear danger, Brigid sets out to find him. Will Matt be killed before she reaches him, or could the physics that endangered him actually be used to save his life?
Purchase
More about Brad Parks
Learn more about Brad Parks and his other titles here.
Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads. Thank you to Brad Parks, Thomas & Mercer, and Megan Beatie Communications (partner), for the galley copy in exchange for my honest review.
