It’s one minute after the Big One. Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be … be days before help can arrive.
Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He’s prepared. In his car are a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a backpack of food, water, and supplies. He knows there is only one thing he can do… that he must do: get home to his wife Beth, go back to their gated community on the far edge of the San Fernando Valley.
All he has to do is walk. But he will quickly learn that it’s not that easy. His dangerous, unpredictable journey home will take him through the different worlds of what was once Los Angeles. Wildfires rage out of control. Flood waters burst through collapsed dams. Natural gas explosions consume neighborhoods. Sinkholes swallow entire buildings. After-shocks rip apart the ground. Looters rampage through the streets.
There’s no power. No running water. No order.
Marty Slack thinks he’s prepared. He’s wrong. Nothing can prepare him for this ordeal, a quest for his family and for his soul, a journey that will test the limits of his endurance and his humanity, a trek from the man he was to the man he can be… if he can survive The Walk.
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With the 7.1 hitting SoCal last night (our chandeliers were swinging in Santa Barbara), it’s a perfect time to read (or re-read) Lee Goldberg’s chilling thriller. Yes, the Big One hits L.A. The results are both terrifying and, in Goldberg’s hands, humorous. A must read that will make a terrific movie.
A truly great book about The Big One hitting L.A. and it’s effect on a particular individual.
Author Lee Goldberg takes us on an odyssey with Martin Slade, a television executive and frustrated writer, through earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles and vicinity. This is one of the few times I have finished reading a novel in one day; it’s that good. Martin, also called, “Marty,” has no choice but to walk from Los Angeles to his home and wife in …
Really kept me hooked till the end. Unpredictable ending . You really had me wondering about the characters
I have read all of the books Mr. Goldberg has co-authored with Janet Evanovich, and having also read more than twenty of the books she was the sole author of, I could pretty easily tell what he brought to the partnership. Because of that very positive experience, I was genuinely looking forward to reading some of Mr. Goldberg’s solo work. Having …
Terrible book. Poorly written. The audio book is not any better. I could not get past the first few chapters. I expected much better from the description, and the author’s previous published works.
Set in the LA Ca area where I grew up in. Could relate to the settings and the descriptors of the locations. Well written, believable characters with a surprise ending. Well worth the time!
At first, I could not have any feelings of sympathy for the main character Marty. As the story went on, his character began to grow on me and became a hero, of sorts. The character of Buck seemed to start out as a cliché but I came to like him too. Good character development. The ending was one that I never saw coming. I know people say that so …
This book was just ehh. There were no great insights revealed, nothing particularly quotable was said, and the descriptors were nothing special. While the story was interesting and fast-paced, it read like a disaster movie script, definitely not like a novel. With some work, this could have been a very good novel, but the writer put little effort …
This is one-of-a-kind character study novel set against a frightening sci-fi background. Main character, Marty, struggles to make it home during L.A. Earthquake. He encounters many dangers and encounters himself. Absorbing and tense, this is a winner.
Interesting and absorbing book that rewards your reading with a surprise when you least expect it….
A short but very enjoyable read…really liked the way it ended!
I liked this book.
The WALK starts out very strong, becomes somewhat less realistic towards the end and at the end it is like the author was in a hurry to finish the book. I felt incomplete at the end.
I really enjoyed this book. Was it the best book I ever read? NO, but still a very enjoyable book.
Awesome, post earthquake scenario… a reality that might occur in California’s next “Big One”. Interesting protagonist with an unexpected twist. Easily read in a day by someone that enjoys relaxing with a good story.
Good beginning. Gets boring at times but worth the price.
I liked it enough that I did not want it to end. I think it was quite realistic and therefore somewhat scary to think about.
Nice beach read
I really loved this book and was blown away by the surprises. I especially liked the narrator.