Final Orbit

In his third “Apollo Murders” book (following The Defector), former astronaut Hadfield, who once served as NASA’s director of operations in Russia, phenomenally combines thriller and historical fiction. This novel is about the actual 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, to which it brilliantly adds thrilling fictional events while keeping intact many of the characters and the historical timeline. Three American astronauts aboard an Apollo craft and three Soviet cosmonauts on Soyuz 19 dock their ships and prepare for a joint space mission. Then a deadly accident occurs, which endangers the fragile détente between the United States and the Soviet Union. On the ground, NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis must bring his crew back to Earth safely while also contending with a secretly launched Chinese spaceship that’s on a collision course with the Apollo. Hadfield tells the story in such a way that the technical aspects of spaceflight are approachable and fun to read.