Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind

Book Review: Death on a Warm Wind by Douglas Warner (also published as The Final Death of Robert Colston)

When newspaper editor Michael Curtis witnesses a man being gunned down in front of the Evening Telegram office, he’s startled to realize that it’s Robert Colston, a man who’s already been declared dead twice.  Robert Colston, who has been missing since the disaster at Arminster five years ago, and even now is being sought by the police on unclear charges.

This time, Colston is really dead.  But is it coincidence, or something more sinister?  Mr. Curtis allows another survivor of the disaster and a police detective to read the story his reporter originally wrote as a fifth-anniversary piece, one that could not be published.

We read it with them, learning of the teeming throngs of tourists in that pleasant beachside resort town.  We see a number of them in some detail, going about their lives as Mr. Colston does his best Jor-El impression, warning of an oncoming earthquake.  The authorities ignore him, and so do almost everyone else, until the earthquake actually happens, as predicted with uncanny accuracy.  In this crisis, the true nature of people becomes evident; a handsome, wealthy nobleman and sports hero is revealed as a sniveling coward, while a common thief selflessly sacrifices his life for others.

Back in the present day, a weather phenomenon that happened in Arminster occurs again, letting the survivors know that another earthquake is about to happen, but this time in the heart of London!  Can Curtis assemble the proof he needs to warn the public in time?

This 1968 novel is a cross between a disaster story and a thriller, as the protagonist races against time and other obstacles to try to save millions of lives.  The obvious first question is, if Colston, a formerly respected physicist, was able to predict earthquakes with such precision, why did no one listen?  And if his theory was rubbish, discredited by the worlds’ seismologists, why did it work at Arminster?

The characterization isn’t very deep, but is effective.  The author actually got me to shed a tear for a character named Groins Mackenzie!  And the villain of the piece is truly chilling in his motivation, which Curtis guesses wrong at until the last moment.

There’s also some nice moments of dawning horror; the first time the characters realize what the wind shift means; the final confrontation with the villain, and the realization of just what Colston’s “earthquake prediction theory” actually is.

Certain aspects of the plot do rely heavily on contrived coincidences, and the science is dodgy at best.  It would make a terrible movie due to front-loading the disaster scenes.

Of amusement to me was the almost-sex scene in which a young honeymoon couple discover that “abstinence only” education has left them at a complete loss as to how to proceed now they actually can.  (It ends tragically when the earthquake hits.)

A fun read, but don’t engage your brain too much.