📖 Blog Tour - Seconds to Midnight by David Orson Newton

Chiselbury
23 April 2026

Thanks to Midas Campaigns for the copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour

Seconds to Midnight is a taut, disturbing, yet all too plausible thriller about the fragility of human control in the age of intelligent machines, where every choice counts and time is running out. The year is 2029. Europe is teetering on the brink of war. Conscription has been launched in the UK, but some say it is too late. The Doomsday Clock, which indicates proximity to a world-ending catastrophe, ticks towards the final seconds to midnight.Over the course of one year, Seconds to Midnight

• George, a former spook, who is torn between family life and being recalled to service by the Head of MI6

• Anita, a high-flying correspondent for a major UK broadcaster who is struggling to find her identity and searching for a higher purpose

• Wei, a computer whizz and quantitative trader now ‘activated’ by British Intelligence, whose loyalties are buried beneath layers of deception

• Dean, a self-styled street-smart London tough man eager to fight

• Ben, a veteran turned pacifist, determined not to fight again

When British Intelligence launches Operation IRIS and ARTEMIS, the lines between human ambition and machine intent blur. At the heart of it all is Omnia - an Artificial Superintelligence so advanced that it no longer answers to its creators. As cyberwar engulfs the nation, Omnia orchestrates a masterstroke that will redraw the map of the world and redefine the meaning of power. But was peace ever truly its goal - or merely the next step in its design? From the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new world order rises. Yet in the final reckoning, one question is Omnia done?

📖 My Review…

The Doomsday Clock is ticking closer to midnight and in this disturbingly technological world we are about to discover just how far reaching the consequences of advanced Artificial Intelligence will have on world security. Told in cleverly constructed vignettes we get different viewpoints from several key players who all have something impressive to bring to the story. Set just a few years into the future, we are introduced to a world on the brink of war, a world which is broken and with major powers, both Eastern and Western, surreptitiously fighting for supremacy.

The terrifying idea of an advanced AI takeover becomes a serious possibility in this intelligent techno-thriller which engages from the very start and which doesn’t relax the momentum until the whole of the complex story is revealed. I enjoyed the short and snappy sections which lead us into some tricky situations particularly with military personnel and also the cat and mouse chases which always seem to end in disaster.

There is an eeriness to the story and the added sense of impending doom never really goes away so that it becomes impossible not to get drawn into the sheer scale of what is unfolding. All credit must go to the author for bringing this world to life so realistically that I felt like I was embarked on a thrilling roller coaster of a ride. With a distinctive writing style and a well researched and imaginative story, it acts as a timely reminder of just how close to peril our fragile world exists. Eerily prophetic Seconds to Midnight is a fascinating read by a talented writer who, I hope, we will see more of in the future.

About the Author

Combat veteran and technologist. Newton’s work has taken him from the warzones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen to the leading edge of innovation in Silicon Valley. He now resides with his wife and son in rural Devon, England. An alumnus of the Faber Academy, Seconds to Midnight is his first novel.

X @DOrsonNewton

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Website

📖 Blog Tour ~ Disturbing the Bones by Andrew Davis and Jeff Biggers

Melville House

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour

Chicago detective Randall Jenkins has not been back home to the historic Civil Rights hotspot of Cairo, Illinois since the disappearance of his mother, a well-known journalist, several decades ago.

That all changes the day Dr. Molly Moore, an ambitious young archaeologist in the national spotlight for her groundbreaking high-tech discoveries, uncovers a set of strange bones at a huge 12,000-year-old site at a highway construction project. With retired military general and contractor William Alexander breathing down her neck to cover up the dig, Molly and Randall soon find themselves in the middle of a wild military conspiracy.

The detective and archaeologist’s entwined family mysteries suddenly thrust them into the central position as the only people who can ensure the safety of the ongoing Chicago global peace summit. They must take on the rogue general who views any disarmament agreement as a clear and present danger to the United States. The fate of global peace and the lives of Molly and Randall hang in the balance.

My Review…

When archaeologist, Molly Moore discovers a set of human bones on a construction site in Cairo, Illinois it sets in motion a chain of events she could never have anticipated. Mollie is an ambitious archaeologist and her previous investigations have placed her in the media spotlight however, with outside forces putting pressure on her to conclude the dig, Molly has more than enough to deal with without the arrival of Chicago Detective Randall Jenkins who has been informed that the bones could belong to his mother, a Civil Rights activist who disappeared, from Cairo, several decades ago. This in itself is the premise for a fascinating story but then the whole plot hitches up a high octave notch, or two, with a complex global nuclear weapons incident which places everything on high alert and suddenly this becomes a very different sort of story.

As a political thriller this ticks all the right boxes, there is more than enough political shenanigans going on and with global tensions reaching high levels and with a US presidential election fast approaching the story moves along at a quick pace. Placing an archaeologist and a flawed police detective together seemed at first like a strange combination but the deeper the story goes and the way the plot thickens, it all starts to make perfect sense. The characterisation is believable and with a compelling set of circumstances, the story hooks you into a world of political mayhem.

There is a cinematic quality to the narrative, it’s fast and furious nature would lend itself to a more visual interpretation as it’s a real edge of your seat kind of thriller. I don’t want to give away any of the plot as that would do the authors’ a disservice but I was completely hooked on the mystery and invested in the realistic nature of global politics and by putting all this together in a slick plot and you have all the elements necessary for a really great page turner.

About the Authors

Jeff Biggers is an American Book Award-winning historian, journalist and playwright. Based part-time in Italy since 1989, he is the recipient of the David Brower Award for Environmental Reporting, the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year for Travel Writing, a Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism, and other honors. Author of ten books of cultural history and investigative reporting, his work has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Salon.com, and on National Public Radio and Public Radio International.

Andrew Davis, raised on the southside of Chicago, is the acclaimed director and screenwriter of numerous films, including Holes, Under Siege, Code of Silence, A Perfect Murder, and The Guardian, and whose landmark film, The Fugitive, chosen in 2020 by Los Angeles Times readers as the ultimate summer film, was nominated for seven Academy awards including Best Picture.

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