Tangles (Paperback or Softback)

“In a well-crafted debut, Smith-Blum provides the reader a ringside seat to the birth of the nuclear age…a beautifully written, important story…Tangles packs a punch and hits close to home.” –Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Tracy Crosswhite Series

Oppenheimer was just the beginning.

When a harpooned whale offers proof the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is endangering all life in the Columbia River Basin, Luke Hinson, a brash young scientist, seizes the chance to avenge his father’s death but a thyroid cancer diagnosis derails Luke’s research. Between treatments, he dives back in, making enemies at every turn. On an overnight trek, Luke discovers evidence that Mary, his former neighbor, embarked on the same treacherous trail, and her disappearance, a decade prior, may be tied to Hanford’s harmful practices mired in government-mandated secrecy.

A love story wrapped in a mystery, this stunning Cold War home-front tale reveals the devastating costs of the birth of the nuclear age, and celebrates the quiet courage of wronged women, the fierce determination of fatherless sons, and the limitless power of the individual.

Tangles is a genre-defying must-read for our time.

An Austin, Texas, transplant and lifetime environmental advocate, Kay Smith-Blum has called Seattle home since 1981. A former high-end fashion retailer who also served on the Seattle School Board, Smith-Blum spends her mornings writing stories that debunk the tropes of the mid-20th century and defy genre. Winner of the Black Fox Lit 2023 Short Story contest, Smith-Blum's other short works have garnered Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. In the afternoon, she works out her writer's block in her three sons' gardens or the nearest lap pool. For more, visit www.KaySmith-Blum.com and follow her on Instagram @discerningKSB