About the Book
In this gripping sequel to The Line Between, which New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava calls “everything you want in a thriller,” cult escapee Wynter Roth and ex-soldier Chase Miller emerge from their bunker to find a country ravaged by disease, and Wynter is the only one who can save it.
Six months after vanishing into an underground silo with sixty others, Wynter and Chase emerge to find the area abandoned. There is no sign of Noah and the rest of the group that was supposed to greet them when they emerged—the same people Wynter was counting on to help her locate the IV antibiotics her gravely ill friend, Julie, needs in order to live.
As the clock ticks down on Julie’s life, Wynter and Chase embark on a desperate search for medicine and answers. But what they find is not a nation on the cusp of recovery thanks to the promising new vaccine Wynter herself had a hand in creating, but one decimated by disease. What happened while they were underground?
With food and water in limited supply and their own survival in question, Chase and Wynter must venture further and further from the silo. Aided by an enigmatic mute named Otto, they come face-to-face with a society radically changed by global pandemic, where communities scrabble to survive under rogue leaders and cities are war zones. As hope fades by the hour and Wynter learns the terrible truth of the last six months, she is called upon once again to help save the nation she no longer recognizes—a place so dark she’s no longer sure it can even survive.
Fast-paced and taut, A Single Light is a breathless thriller of nonstop suspense about the risks of living in a world outside the safe confines of our closely-held beliefs and the relationships and lives that inspire us.
Excerpt
I miss ice cream. The way it melts into a soupy mess if you draw out the enjoyment of eating it too long. That is has to be savored in a rush.
I miss the Internet, my cell phone, and Netflix. I was halfway through the first season of Stranger Things when the lights went out.
I miss the sky. The feel of wind—even when it carries the perfume of a neighboring pasture. The smell of coming rain.
But even fresh air is a small price to pay to be sane and alive. To be with the people you love.
The ones who are left, anyway. My five-year-old niece, Truly. My mom’s former best friend, Julie, and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lauren. And Chase—my (what? boyfriend?)—who has made it his mission to keep me safe since we met three weeks ago.
We’re five of the lucky sixty-three who have taken shelter from the flu-borne pandemic in an underground silo west of Gurley, Nebraska.
I used to hate that word—lucky. But there’s no better way to describe the fortune of food and water. Amenities like heat, clothing, and a bed. Not to mention an infirmary, gymnasium, library, hydroponic garden, laying hens, and the company of uninfected others. All safe and living in relative comfort due to the foresight of a “doomsday prepper” named Noah, who thought of everything—including the pixelated walls and ceiling of the upper lounge aglow with a virtual meadowscape of billowing grasses and lazy bees beneath an artificial sky.
We spent the first four days confined to two of the silo’s dorm levels with the rest of the last-minute arrivals, waiting to confirm the rapid tests administered upon our arrival. Mourning the loss of Julie’s husband and Lauren’s father, Ken, and my sister, Jaclyn—Truly’s mother. Stiffening at any hint of a cough across the communal bunkroom, fully aware that there is no fleeing whatever we may have brought with us; the silo door is on a time lock, sealed for six months.
By which time the grid will be back up and the disease causing fatal madness in its patients should have died out with the flu season . . .
Along with most of its victims.
Review
Tosca Lee knows how to captivate readers right from the first line—which in this case is “I miss ice cream.” I mean, way to strike right at your readers’ hearts, right? Well, hold on, because the revelations keep coming. This story picks up shortly after The Line Between left off—that is, two weeks after Winter, Chase, and sixty-one others have taken refuge in an underground silo that’s been sealed by a time lock. For six months. Even under normal circumstances, having sixty-plus people confined to an underground silo for six months would be a recipe for tension, but in Tosca Lee’s hands, you know to brace yourself for a whole lot more than that.
What transpires in this story, amidst the kinds of revelations and suspense that keeps you glued to the pages, is an exploration of the way in which times of uncertainty and crisis illuminate both the worst and the best of human nature. More, that the worst situations provide the greatest opportunity to discover the best of human nature. As Francis Bacon said, “In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.” It’s a particularly powerful realisation for Wynter, who was raised in a cult that shunned the outside world for the evil it held.
I must confess, I was bracing myself for a final revelation to knock me sideways at the end, but that didn’t eventuate. Instead, the story brought Wynter’s personal journey full circle in a way that’s layered with deeper meanings I’m still teasing out. It’s a great read for the action and suspense alone, but I love that it’s prompted some philosophical musings too!
I received a copy of this novel from the author. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the Author
Tosca Lee is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of THE PROGENY, ISCARIOT, THE LEGEND OF SHEBA, DEMON: A MEMOIR, HAVAH: THE STORY OF EVE, and the Books of Mortals series with New York Times bestseller Ted Dekker (FORBIDDEN, MORTAL, SOVEREIGN). A notorious night-owl, she loves watching TV, eating bacon, playing video games and football with her kids, and sending cheesy texts to her husband.
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Wonderful review! Tosca is an amazing author!