Publisher's Synopsis
Inspired by true events, The Brightest Place in the World traces the lives of four characters haunted by an industrial disaster. On an ordinary sunny morning in 2012, a series of explosions level a chemical plant on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The shock waves are felt as far away as Fremont Street. Homes and businesses suffer broken windows and caved-in roofs. Hundreds are injured, and eight employees of the plant are unaccounted for, presumed dead.
One of the missing is maintenance technician Andrew Huntley, a husband and father who is an orbital force in the novel as those who loved him grapple with his loss. Andrew's best friend, Russell Martin - an anxiety-plagued bartender who calms his nerves with a steady inflow of weed - misses him more than he might a brother. Meanwhile Emma, Russell's wife - a blackjack dealer at a run-down downtown casino - tries to keep her years-long affair with Andrew hidden. Simon Addison, a manager at the plant who could have saved Andrew's life, is afflicted by daily remorse, combined with a debilitating knowledge of his own cowardice. And then there's Mattie, Andrew's only child, a model high-school student whose response to the tragedy is to experiment with shoplifting and other deviant behavior.
Against the sordid backdrop of Las Vegas - and inspired by the PEPCON disaster of May 4th, 1988 - this engaging novel is a story of grief and regret, disloyalty and atonement, infatuation and love.
