Pipeline

A 20-day electrical blackout in California results in 2,000 deaths and nationwide demand for a resolution to the energy crisis in this uneven near-future thriller from Washington, D.C., consultant Schechter, his second novel after Point of Entry . The Russians are secretly attempting to take over Latin America’s natural gas fields, and at the same time are negotiating a gas pipeline to be built across the Bering Strait to Alaska. The point of these machinations? A complete stranglehold on America’s energy resources. Numerous exhaustively drawn characters are part of the complicated proceedings, including Tony Ruiz, the U.S. president’s “special advisor for domestic affairs,” and assorted bad-guy Russian officials. Despite the ripped from the headlines premise, each time interest begins to build, clunky writing (“His bloodshot eyes spat fury”) brings the reader crashing back to reality. A confusing ending points to a return for Tony Ruiz in a sequel. (Mar.)