Ascending Power

The success of Billy Strikeleather, the hero of Gibson’s gripping thriller, as a professional football player put his hometown of Chinati Flats, Tex., on the map. Then an injury ended his NFL career, and Billy’s life has since consisted of alcohol abuse and a fruitless search for work. His 80-year-old uncle, Sam Longbird, offers the possibility of a change for the better. Sam has discovered a hot spring near the town with an unusual mineral content toxic to plants, but before he can say who else he’s discussed the find with, he’s shot and ends up in a coma. After tasting a water sample from the hot spring, Billy suspects that it contains a rare earth element, dysprosium, capable of boosting gas mileage. When he consults his college geology professor, Clive Larsen, with whom he once researched the element, he learns that oil companies felt sufficiently threatened by Clive’s work on dysprosium to arrange for Clive’s wife to be sexually assaulted and ruin the academic’s career. The tension rises as Billy searches for justice for Sam and Clive. Gibson combines a sympathetic, flawed lead with a suspenseful plot. (Self-published.)