The Apollo Murders: A Novel by Chris HadfieldSeries: The Apollo Murders #1
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
Pages: 480
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★
Source: Personal Copy
Genre: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Publisher: Mulholland Books / Hachette Book Group
From New York Times bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield comes this exceptional thriller and "exciting journey" into the dark heart of the Cold War and the space race (Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary)—soon to be a major TV series from Altitude and Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions.
1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help.
NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it.
But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue.
Full of the fascinating technical detail that fans of The Martian loved, and reminiscent of the thrilling claustrophobia, twists, and tension of The Hunt for Red October, The Apollo Murders is a high-stakes thriller unlike any other. Chris Hadfield captures the fierce G-forces of launch, the frozen loneliness of space, and the fear of holding on to the outside of a spacecraft orbiting the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour as only someone who has experienced all of these things in real life can.
Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime.
REVIEW
Chris Hadfield’s The Apollo Murders throws you right into the shadowy depths of the 1970s space race, adding a secret Apollo 18 mission that never happened, except in this nail-biter of a novel. Hadfield, who knows a thing or two about zero gravity, spins a story where Houston, the Moon, and Moscow collide in a high-stakes game of espionage and survival. It’s a world where astronauts dodge not only cosmic radiation but also spies, political backstabbing, and a lurking killer among their crew.
The plot rockets forward as NASA, still reeling from recent disasters, launches a hush-hush mission with everything on the line: American prestige, fragile détente with the Soviets, and the lives of everyone onboard. A saboteur, a murderer, and Cold War paranoia keep the pressure on, as the astronauts face dangers both in the void and back on Earth. Every twist feels earned, and the technical details are so sharp you’ll swear you can smell the burnt insulation.
Hadfield fills the book with believable characters, ambitious astronauts, tough-as-nails engineers, and politicians who see the Moon as just another chessboard. Ambition, trust, and sacrifice drive the story, and the tension between science and politics is always front and center. Sure, some characters lean toward archetype, but their motives are rooted in the era’s real fears and hopes.
The writing is no-nonsense, heavy on the tech, and it works. This isn’t flowery prose; it’s tight, precise, and loaded with enough authenticity to make even the most skeptical space buff nod in approval. If you want poetry, look elsewhere; if you want to feel what it’s like to strap into a Saturn V, you’ve come to the right place.
What makes The Apollo Murders stand out is its raw realism. Hadfield brings the Apollo era to life with the kind of detail you only get from someone who’s been there. The story’s packed with intrigue, and the action is pulse-pounding, though the pacing sometimes slows when the tech talk takes over. A few critics wish for deeper character arcs, and the ending feels a bit over-the-top, but the thrills never let up for long.
The Apollo Murders is a smart, suspenseful read with just enough history to keep you grounded and plenty of twists to launch you into orbit. If you’re looking for a literary masterpiece or a character study, you might want to keep searching. But for an authentic, propulsive ride through the most dangerous corners of the space race, Hadfield sticks the landing.
