That Others May Live by Sara Driscoll

That Others May Live
by Sara Driscoll

ISBN-13: 9780593197882
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Kensington Books
Released: November 28, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
There are situations that fill even the most seasoned FBI K-9 handlers with shock and horror. Meg Jennings is preparing for another work day when she gets words of a catastrophic scene in downtown Washington, D.C. Part of a twelve-story condo building has collapsed, and the rest of the structure could soon follow. Every search-and-rescue worker and K-9 team is needed on-site immediately to find survivors—and assess the casualties.

Putting aside her fears for her firefighter fiancé, who’s already inside the unstable building, Meg turns to the task at hand. If anyone is still alive within the rubble, she and Hawk, working alongside other K-9 teams, must find them. Every hour, every moment counts—and a wrong move could trigger a deadly chain reaction for those buried beneath. But beyond the present danger is a deeper threat, as evidence indicates that this wasn’t a random tragedy, but an act of domestic terrorism.


My Review:
That Others May Live is a K9 suspense. This book is the 8th in a series, but it works as a stand-alone. The author wanted to write about what rescue personal go through when working a horrific building collapse. Most of the story involved Meg and the K9 team searching the fallen building wreckage while Todd, the firefighter/paramedic, first worked with those clearing what remained standing. While this was interesting, the building fell in a way that few people could survive and many of the remains were only identifiable through DNA (and it didn't get any more graphic than that). It's nitty-gritty depressing.

Their journalist friend and others at his newspaper gathered information about why the building might have fallen--bad design? terrorism? The last third of the story was uncovering what happened and the arrest of the bad guys. It felt to me like the author got her collapsed building research down, started writing the book, then couldn't figure out a good reason why someone would destroy a luxury apartment building full of people. So she went with: the bad guys were gullible, illogical, and believed a lie (which, however unlikely, wasn't actually proven to be a lie). There was no point in trying to understand their motive because it made no sense to logical, sensible types.

I was shocked when one of the FBI boss characters went so far as to say he hated conspiracy theorists, implying that anyone who believed one is illogical and potentially dangerous. Oh, so it's somehow logical to group together and vilify people with a wide variety of beliefs and personalities? And Meg's fiancé jumped from 'I know a fellow firefighter who's gullible' to actively considering if that person might have been the terrorist. Hmm. Being gullible usually makes one a victim, not a violent murderer.

Anyway, the main characters were generally likable, interesting, and reacted realistically to events. The high suspense came from the danger to everyone working the building collapse site. There was some bad language. There were no sex scenes.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.