In 1984 SYLVIA JENSEN was a heavy drinker having an affair with Norton, an atomic veteran and fellow activist in the nuclear disarmament movement. In 2019, at seventy-seven and with her activist days behind her, Sylvia was protecting her hard-won recovery and simple lifestyle until Norton’s troubled son Corey draws her back into the fight. To save his life and those of countless others, she and her old friend investigative reporter J.B. Harrell must unravel a decades-old mystery and face the truth of the nuclear age before it is too late.
My review:
In Nuclear Option, we meet the nuclear disarmament movement head on. Spanning thirty-five years, we alternate between Sylvia’s activism in 1984 and her current-day chance meeting with Corey, a past lover’s son. Moving back and forth seamlessly, we learn about social activism, atomic veterans, and government cover-up. The story is a beautifully laced narrative between what was and how little has changed. I found the characters depicted with insight, their innocence, duplicity, and anger relatable. Sylvia is a spry septuagenarian, complete with faded bell-bottoms and ponytail. Who wouldn’t want a socially conscious grandmother? I give Dorothy a five-thumbs up. I can’t wait to read the first two books in the Sylvia Jensen series.
Buy a copy of Nuclear Option
Meet Dorothy Van Soest
Dorothy Van Soest is a Professor Emerita and former dean at the University of Washington with a research-based publication record of eleven books and over fifty journal articles and essays. Her debut novel, Just Mercy, was informed by her widely acclaimed investigation of the lives of thirty-seven men who were executed by Texas in 1997. At the Center, her second novel is a mystery inspired by her experiences with the child welfare system, and a third novel, Death Unchartered, her experiences during the two and a half month teachers’ strike in NYC in 1968. Nuclear Option, the third in the Sylvia Jensen series, was inspired by her nuclear disarmament activism. Dorothy lives in Seattle, Washington, where she is currently working on her fourth Sylvia Jensen mystery and a student social justice text.
Dorothy says this about writing: Writer, social worker, teacher, political and community activist, professor, and university dean—I’ve enjoyed wearing many different hats but none as much as that of novelist, to which I now devote my life and energy.
Learn more about Dorothy on her website www.dorothyvansoest.com
