Slide by Gerald A. Browne

Slide is a disaster novel by the author of 11 Harrowhouse (an ingenious diamond heist novel). Several of his titles have been made into movies, and this would be perfect.

After 14 days of solid rain in Southern California, the air sizzles with bleak energy. Paranoia is high as the government does nothing with the climatologists' warnings.

But, you came here for disaster on the scale of The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, so we are introduced to a cast of characters, a few pages on each to help the reader care when disaster strikes.

Frank Brydon, 42 and dying of cancer; housewives Judith and Marion, having a secret love affair; a disgruntled youth with a gun obsession; a Hollywood producer and his movie star wife; a plastic surgery addict and her stud lover; a young Armenian couple expecting a baby; the grocery store manager and a product salesman; an ex-con on parole; and several other ancillary characters buying groceries at the same time.

SEASIDE is a large supermarket perched on the hills overlooking the Coast Highway, and one of the first to use UPC bar code scanners (interesting for 1977). No one noticed the first crack appear before the hillside buckled, toppling the building down nine stories. Water pipes burst and transformers blew, electrocuting many of the 200 shoppers. Food fell off the shelves and was buried. Blackout.

People on the highway watched the Fire and Police crews mount a rescue from the store roof, ignoring warning signs the ground was tilting. Suddenly, a massive mudslide tears it all away. Everyone presumed dead, clean up will take months, no one aware there are survivors trapped in the building as mud rushes in, rising by the hour. They must stay on the safety of the checkout islands and, like in Poseidon, find a way climb upwards to exit.

I thought this was a terrifc thriller. The group bands together, each trying their best before randomly getting sucked into the rising mudslide. They all hope for a future, but in the tradition of disaster stories just a few survive.

My story of Slide goes back 48 years - when I was eleven, and disaster films were popular. I still love them all. I remember seeing this novel in stores and was enamoured of the cover art. A California landslide was just what I wanted. Somehow, it has stayed in my mind all these years, so to find a copy now was a thrill. I am happy to say this has all the action and cheese you would expect from the late 70s.

My other disaster novel reviews:

The Poseidon Adventure

1977 / Paperback / 240 pages