Sequestered

Max Overton, Jim Darley

Writers Exchange E-Publishing, Feb 1, 2012 - Fiction - 378 pages

A suspense novel in which the protagonists are drawn into the maelstrom of an unfolding disaster caused by short-sighted and avaricious people.

Storing carbon dioxide underground as a means of removing a greenhouse gas responsible for global warming has made James Matternicht a fabulously wealthy man. For 15 years, the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Facility at Rushing River in Oregon's hinterland has been operating without a problem - or so it seems. Annaliese Winton is a reporter, and when mysterious documents arrive on her desk that purport to show the Facility is leaking, she investigates. Together with a government geologist, Matt Morrison, she uncovers a morass of corruption and deceit that now threatens the safety of her community and the whole northwest coast of America. Liquid carbon dioxide, stored at the critical point under great pressure, is a tremendously dangerous substance, and millions of tonnes of it are sequestered in the rock strata below Rushing River. All it takes is a crack in the overlying rock and the whole pressurized mass could erupt with disastrous consequences. And that crack has always been there...

About the author

During his previous career as a laboratory manager, Jim Darley gained exceptionally broad experiences in several of the physical sciences. This included the use of liquid gases and CO2 – especially above the critical point. When he read some of the information being promulgated about carbon geo-sequestration, he realised that the properties of super-critical CO2 were poorly understood and were disregarded by proponents of sequestration. Similarly the problem of serious leakage from a sequestration site, some of which are now proposed to be 250km2 in extent; the toxicity of CO2; and the ultimate calamity, a blow-out, which would produce copious amounts of dry-ice snow at minus 76°C are simply ignored in the literature.

Jim just brought together some common knowledge from different fields – knowledge that can be found as easily as Googling. No important magazine wanted to know about ‘sequestration'; the story had evidently become too complex for journalists and the consequences seemed to be too extreme to be true – although a high school student could verify the assertions using the Internet.

Jim then talked with his colleague Max Overton, who has written a number of novels in different genres. Max has a biological sciences background and easily grasped the issues. Jim and Max started work on an outline and ‘plot’. All final drafts were by Max, and both authors are very happy with the outcome.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Sequestered
• Authors: Max Overton, Jim Darley
• Publisher: Writers Exchange E-Publishing, 2012
• ISBN: 1921636696, 9781921636691
• Length: 378 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Thrillers / General; Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense