Review: Great suspense with a sprinkling of humour!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2013
Wendy Hopkins' first day on the job didn't go too well! She arrived at the TCN site, only to find there was no position available. With a sinking heart, she started to leave, but was told by the boss, Dan Hullog (known as Bulldog behind his back) that she could head over to a nearby site, Barnes Inc, where he knew there was an opening as an assistant. And so began her life as Safety Manager of the tallest, longest and deepest open-sea wharf in the world, based in Wickham, on the Pilbara, in WA. The difficulties she faced were made worse because it was a man's world...there were only four women on site, but approximately 300 men. Their safety standards were not up to par, but they didn't want to take orders from a woman, and when she discovered her direct supervisor was not doing his job properly, she had him fired. THAT made her popular!They lived on site, in dongas, which had just the bare essentials, everything was portable, with the dongas in a large group, the main one being the mess, where they all met for their meals. The project manager, Carl Curtis, was a fair, likeable but volatile man, and one of his off-siders, Gavin Jones, was eye-catching...dangerous, a ladies man! Wendy was determined to keep away from him...she had no time to get involved with anyone, let alone a man of his reputation....she was searching for her father. She hadn't known she was adopted until a year prior, and it devastated her...she felt she HAD to find him to find out why he'd deserted her at birth, but the search was going nowhere. With her latest clue being the Pilbara, she had decided to head there to continue her quest.Wendy was nicknamed `Sergeant', and was the butt of many pranks, but she gritted her teeth and kept working. Feeling alone, and lonely, she wondered if she would ever make any friends.. would she ever earn the respect of the men she was determined to protect? But the danger of a terrible storm, as well as danger of the human kind, changed everything. Would their training be enough...could she save them from potential disaster?I really enjoyed my first Loretta Hill novel. The suspense was gripping, the humour was wonderful...I will be reading more of this author.