On the cover of My Last Continent by Midge Raymond.
This hot love story from an American author, set on a freezing continent, has touches of New Zealand occasionally. The setting is the Antarctic, extensively described and providing an unusual and often terrifying setting for the action.
The main character is American penguin researcher Deb Gardner, who we quickly learn
keeps to herself ("I close my eyes for the eight-hour flight"), heading with a group of American scientists on a flight to McMurdo Station, the United States' base on Ross Island.
Deb is on a foundation grant to do a census of the emperor penguin colony nearest the base. On this fateful flight, she meets the love of her life, Keller Sullivan.
So it starts; a new and promising-looking novel (lovely front cover, blue with stars) which unfolds in a series of different times before a disaster, an intriguing device that keeps the reader engaged.
At the start, we're told of the fateful 1979 Air New Zealand Flight 901 out of Christchurch "which crashed into the side of Mt. Erebus. It was the worst disaster in the history of this continent - until five years ago. Until the Australis," writes Raymond.
