Review: "Maybe you have to hate someone first before you can really love them."
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 13, 2013
Having read "The Trunk Key" and two other stories by Carolyn Nash, I knew she could write taut, suspenseful prose that hooked the reader from page one. "Seismic Shift" certainly met my expectations. Peter and Callie Carson were negotiating the terms of their divorce in a rancorous meeting with their respective lawyers when a massive earthquake devastated their small town. Concern for their four-year-old son Denny forced a temporary truce between the two as they went searching for their son, who was miles away at his day care center.The couple's difficult journey through rubble-strewn streets with buildings collapsing around them brought out the hostility between the two, but it also forced them to examine their marriage and how they got to the point of divorce. A nightmarish memory from Callie's childhood resurfaced and gave some insight into her feelings. But could the two cooperate for a common purpose amid the disaster and tragedy all around them and find their son?I enjoyed "Seismic Shift" very much. The author wrote convincingly of the desperate life or death struggles of the townspeople after a major catastrophe, and the conflicting emotions of Peter and Callie as they had to choose between saving those around them or rushing to find their young son. It made for a gripping story.