Author T.J. Newman stopped by ABC News Live Prime to discuss her latest novel, Worst Case Scenario.
Newman’s novel, published Tuesday by Little, Brown, follows the aftermath of a plane crash at a nuclear power plant in a small Minnesota town. In a starred review, a Kirkus critic calls the book a “chilling tale of disaster, bravery, and sacrifice.” It’s the third novel from the former flight attendant, who scored bestsellers with her thrillers Falling and Drowning.
Host Linsey Davis pointed out that in the past week, there was a nuclear power plant fire in Georgia and a passenger plane crash in Brazil. She asked Newman how she imagines the worst case scenarios that she writes about in her novels.
“The title of the book is apt,” Newman said. “The way that I got to it was actually talking to pilots. When I was doing research for my first book, Falling, I would ask some questions about the nuts and bolts, policies and procedures of flying, but I would also ask them, Emotionally, what’s that like? What’s the mental side of being a pilot? I would ask them, What’s your worst fear? One day, I had a pilot tell me, My worst fear is a commercial airliner crashing into a nuclear power plant.”
Davis asked Newman how concerned people should be about the kinds of scenarios she imagines in her novels.
“If you read the book, it sounds terrifying, and it is, but it’s not about the crash, it’s about what happens afterwards,” she said. “It’s about how people respond to what happens. We can’t prevent something like this, so what are we going to do about it if it does?”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
