Laura Kostad's reviews Jeff Bailey's The Defect

Jeff Bailey’s masterful debut novel [The Defect] takes you deep inside the belly and inner workings of a nuclear power plant and shows you how even when state of the art security is in place, nothing is ever enough to stop terrorists intent on their goal of widespread destruction. A thriller of a novel and chock full of technical detail to keep you firmly grounded in the action, it’s a hard one to put down—the desire to stay right on the heels of Brian and his team will keep you enthralled from cover to cover.

Typically, I have a bit of an aversion to stories which employ Middle Eastern terrorists attacking United States infrastructure, for the reason that I feel it perpetuates unequivocal stereotypes. However, Bailey did it right. I really appreciated the time he took to flesh out the individual members of the terrorist group, going so far as to paint a detailed picture of their backgrounds and what led them to where they are in The Defect. Although I certainly neither sympathize nor empathize with how they’ve chosen to deal with their resulting feelings, I respect them as individuals—as fellow people, and not just some stigmatized enemy, as contemporary, reductionist political rhetoric often suggests.

It's clear from the detailed account that he’s given that Bailey draws off a tremendous body of knowledge in setting the scene of his story. His precise, technical detailing of plant setup and the mechanisms utilized by the terrorist group in their attempt to destroy the plant really lends credibility and realism to this story, which is often lost or neglected in your everyday suspense/thriller. This is a book that I think will withstand the debunking of diligent readers looking to separate fact from fiction and rationalize events within the realm of possibility.

I greatly look forward to Bailey's next book, which is rumored to focus on another member of the heroic Sing family. If they’re anything like Brian, I know we’ll be in for another thrill!