Title: Trapped Days
Series: After The End
Author: Grace Hamilton
Genre: Post Apocalyptic
Release Date: 7th August 2024
BLURB
As the world descends into chaos, one woman will do anything to find her daughter…
Shannon Grayson is a tough-as-nails long-haul truck driver. But her life is turned upside down when a massive electromagnetic blast hits North America while she’s unloading cargo at the South-Central Retail Supercenter, demolishing the power grid.
Now she’s trapped inside the sprawling building, along with dozens of other survivors. And no one is coming to their rescue. Without power, the world outside begins to collapse. Shannon is determined to escape and find her daughter—they haven’t seen each other since Shannon entered witness protection five years ago, but when SHTF her momma-bear drive takes over.
But first, she must survive this ordeal…
Eight hundred miles away is Dennis Sullivan, Shannon’s witness protection officer, who swore to protect her and her daughter, and he’s a man of his word. He’ll battle through the ruins of America to reunite with them and ensure their safety.
Desperation quickly turns to terror as Shannon and the others realize there’s no way out of the locked-down supercenter. They’ll have to depend on each other to survive.
In the world gone mad, the only people they can trust—and the only people they need to fear—are each other…
REVIEW
I think the cover does its job well as it certainly attracts your eyes and attention to the book. Once I read the blurb I was hooked and knew I really wanted to read the book!
The main character is Shannon Grayson who before going into witness protection was Sarah Nakamaru, wife of gang boss and murderer Andre Atkinson. Sarah/Shannon committed the ultimate betrayal when she gave evidence in court against Andre and she knew she was putting her life at risk but she also knew it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it also meant that Sarah/Shannon and Andre’s daughter Kim was caught up in the whole mess. Kim was old enough to make her own decision about going into witness protection and she decided against it, she is sure her father and his associates would do nothing to hurt her as it was her mother that testified, not her. However she does change her surname to Nakamaru which is the same as her Aunt & Uncle who became her legal guardians because her mother had to go into witness protection. Kim Nakamaru went off to college, and Sarah Nakumaru became Shannon Grayson, long distance truck driver, never staying in one place for very long for fear of being tracked by her ex-husband or his associates. Kim and Shannon keep in touch and receive updates on each other via Shannon’s witness protection officer Dennis Sullivan who takes his job and the safety of his charges seriously. Dennis is an ex-marine and Kim and Shannon are the nearest things he has to a family of his own, and he will do whatever is necessary to protect them from anything, including the end of the world as they know it. Dennis has been suspended indefinitely from his job because of his reliance on strong painkillers that he takes for his old marine war wounds and a more recent car accident. It’s as if Dennis is on some sort of Marine auto pilot in his determination to find Kim.
Everything starts to go wrong with a flash of light in Washington, cars, electronics just stop working. Unfortunately for the rest of America there is no time to warn anyone, or contact loved ones. Phone calls go unanswered, messages unheard when everything comes to a grinding halt.
Shannon is about to unload at a Supercenter/Warehouse when everything goes dark and she ends up trapped in an increasingly tense situation with other truckers and shoppers. At first people push and shove to get to the exits but somehow the storm shutters are triggered and come down sealing people inside the Supercenter/Warehouse. The manager is Noah Mochire and his thoughts are all about the business, no one should have anything they cannot pay cash for, be that food, water or medical supplies. Theres plenty of arguing and bickering, kids are tired, hungry and restless and basically everyone has had enough so Shannon channels her biker days with 'the black rats' and silences everyone shouting 'enough' then she takes Noah Mochire to task and a system for feeding people and “living” in the Supercenter/Warehouse is organised. When Hank Nilsen dies mysteriously, Bill, Connor & Shannon deal with the body and talk about escaping the building sooner rather than later, all eager to distance themselves from an unstable self-appointed guard/security Barney Langmaid with a gun!
Andre Atkinson starts his day out like any other is in his cell reading a book and almost gleefully intimidating his cell mate when all the lights go off. His immediate thoughts are of chaos & escape! He isn’t sure how he is going to even get out of his cell but he is content enough to take his time to come with the perfect plan to escape prison. Then he knows exactly what he is going to do, make his ex-wife pay for putting him in prison.
When Dennis is attacked on his journey by Martin, as he desperately wants the car Dennis has to get him, his wife Rita & diabetic daughter Nancy back to their home. Despite being attacked Dennis still cannot help himself and offers them a lift to nearest town & pharmacy for insulin. Martin refuses determined he wants the car to get to their home, nowhere else will do. Dennis manages to overpower Martin and driveaway but Martin shoots at the car puncturing a tire, causing car to crash, making it unusable by anyone. Dennis slips in and out of consciousness and wallows a little, almost giving up on reaching Kim and then his marines attitude kicks in & once again he is determined to get to Kim.
The book chapters are from the individual perspectives of Shannon, Dennis and Andre which works really well, though it would have been nice to have a few chapters from Kim and where she was and how she dealt with the changing world when the EMP struck too.
One thing that is prevalent throughout the book is how quickly people fall into the mentality of thinking only of themselves & killing & maiming to get what they want. Yet at the same time there are also people who go above and beyond to help others and share what little they have themselves.
Summing up there is so much happening in this book in different areas to the different characters. The book is centred around and told from the points of view of three pivotal characters, Shannon, Dennis & Andre. From the moment the EMP strikes, to the end of the epilogue this book is full of action, drama, dilemmas, betrayal and chaos. Seriously looking forward to reading more of this addictive series. I honestly hated having to put this book down!! I can’t wait to read more about Shannon, Kim, Dennis and even Andre!
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