Book #39: The X-Files: Ground Zero by Kevin J. Anderson
Number of pages: 290
I read this years ago and had almost completely forgotten what happened.
Kevin J. Anderson's first X-Files fan fiction novel opens with a nuclear scientist receiving a strange message and a sample of black powder, before being mysteriously burned to a husk in an apparent freak accident, but when Mulder and Scully start investigating three more victims also die in the same manner, and none seem obviously connected.
The whole story leads them to secretive nuclear tests, and ends in an epic climactic scene.
I enjoyed Kevin J. Anderson's X-Files novels more than the older ones by Charles Grant, mostly because I like the way that he writes Mulder and Scully better and more truereading this again, I realised that while heavily political at times, it is also very thought-provoking, mostly regarding the ethical issues relating to nuclear testing, which was definitely a significant threat during the latter half of the twentieth century.
I mentioned before that I forgot what happened, and the true nature of what causes the deaths in this book is definitely something I would not have guessed. I found the climactic scenes breathtaking, just visualising the events as they were written.
Next book: The Night Book (Richard Madeley)