Amazon CA $16.99
Adventure / Romance
1860s
American Frontier
Tunnel 6 is a quirky and entertaining novel about
a well-chosen period in American history that I knew nothing about beforehand
and found fascinating. It is told in several different strands and, indeed,
several different styles, including diary entries and a ‘confession’, and that
nicely worked device held my attention well and kept the story moving along.
The novel follows the fortunes of a work camp in America building the Central
Pacific railway line through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the 1860s and specifically
those trying to blast the longest tunnel – the eponymous Tunnel 6 - through
granite. Centring around an engineer, a female wire operator and a saboteur
sent to delay and, if possible, destroy the line, and with a fascinating side
cast of Chinese workers, it offers a lively glimpse into a very
interesting time.
That said,
although I enjoyed Tunnel 6, it never truly grabbed me, perhaps because
everything seemed to happen on a slightly superficial level. The core romance
was sweet but very steady. It never seemed to hit any rocks or problems and as
a result I never felt on the inside of it. That was believable in some ways as
these were two very straightforward individuals but it still made it hard for
me to truly care about their fate. The setting was clearly well researched and
believably presented but there was no real atmosphere which, for a book set in
the frozen wastes of Sierra Nevada, was a shame.
Similarly, when it came to the
plot, I found it fun piecing together what had happened, but the fact that we
knew the perpetrator of the attempted sabotage from the start meant that there
was a lack of secrets to really keep me hooked and no one ever felt truly in
jeopardy. The pace was sufficient to keep me reading but I felt that I was always
waiting for the storyline to get going and found myself slightly surprised to
have reached the end.
Overall, I
found Tunnel 6 a fluid and fun read, but not one that really got under my skin. It will appeal to readers who are interested in this period of American Frontier history and the building of the railways.
© Joanna Barnden
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