Boyd Morrison has written the mother of all recent disaster novels in Rogue Wave (originally released in 2009 as The Palmyra Effect). It's obvious which title works better here.

The acting director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu picks up a reading of a potentially legendary tsunami picking up steam in the Pacific and hurtling at deadly speed towards Hawaii. Kai figures this can’t be right and now has the added pressure of making an evacuation decision that - if incorrect - could cost the state millions and effectively ruin his career. What to do?

Kai makes the judgment call to the military and the governor and recommends immediate evacuation of anyone within three miles of the coast – i.e. most of the island. When smaller Christmas Island is wiped off the map by the monster tsunami, Kai realizes he made the correct call.

As they are preparing the evacuation, which comprises dozens of smaller plots involving Kai’s friends and family as well as thousands of innocent bystanders, Kai continues to look for the cause of the tsunami in an effort to better understand it and prepare for stopping it. He surmises that a meteor strike in the middle of the Pacific could cause a sizable enough earthquake to have created the not one, but four monster waves that are destroying the entire area.

Morrison keeps the pace going at a frenetic speed as the top of each chapter announces the time to the next wave. Death and destruction along with extreme acts of heroism fill the pages as they fly by. My only criticism of this terrifically entertaining novel is that the author offers no solution for how to avoid this catastrophe. Based on recent events involving earthquakes/tsunamis and the fact that the planet is two-thirds water makes for a true-life horror story that should keep those on planet watch up all night looking towards the sky.