Mr M

Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?

This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a scream. In the remote mountains of Northern Alaska, Dr. Riley Middleton and her team of archeologists discover a burial site containing mummified remains dating to the last ice age. None of them notice the warning carved into the entrance or realize that the tomb had been deliberately sealed from the outside until they’ve already released a virus that turns ordinary people into murderous monsters. But there’s something even more terrifying inside...something ancient...something unspeakably evil.

Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds’ notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have. Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario.