Chuck is out there!

As you may know from my consatnt reminders, I talk about extraordinary moments in history on Graeme Hill's Radio Live show, Sundays at 2.15. This week we were talking about a Devonport mechanic inventing a death ray, maybe, before the First Labour Govt sacked him, end of 1935. Graeme was good enough to mention that I had just launched my thriller 'From My Cold, Dead Hands', a quote from Charlton Heston which ties in to story I have written about the dire repercussions of a masive oil strike off the coast of Northland, something that the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences says is a matetr of when not if. My theme is based on the recent Times of London review of 'the age-old curse of oil' in Sudan, Russian, Iran etc. This time it is our turn. My maverick scientist Dr Ben Duffie is trying to warn the government of the apocalyptic implications of drilling into an area of volcanic activity such as off the coast of Northland. He is an expert on seismic indicators, but he is also worried about drilling triggering an undergound volcanic explosion where magma reacts with water, as it did in the cataclysmic Tarawera eruption. He predicts a tsunami that would sweep away Auckland. Are the government and the oil folk listening? Only to the extent of trying to shut up Dr Ben Duffie. Read on. Well, once you get the book from your bookshop or local library. If they don't have it, ask them. Charlton 'Chuck' Heston is prominent in the prologue, playing tennis in Wellington with Peter Snell. That is true. I saw them. 1966. The rest of the story is about now, with Chuck's words regarding his constitutional right to bear arms coming back to haunt the characters in my book.