Twenty-One Days: The Long Haul

De: Joseph D Nirmaier

Narrado por: Jeffery Lynn Hutchins

The Reckoning had passed, but the loss of life and destruction left in its wake defied imagination. Not in JT Clarke's wildest dreams could he have foreseen the speed at which society consumed itself. The little village of Somerset, once a quaint rural community, lay in utter ruins, uninhabitable after the final thread of morality wore thin and snapped.

JT's home, the ranch, was spared the worst when the village collapsed simply because of geography. Six miles north had been just enough distance to insulate the group from the tentacles of disaster the night of the ice storm. Yet, the group had suffered in ways just as harrowing. JT himself had been shot by a ragtag mix of men put together by a crazed neighbor holding a grudge. Had it not been for D'Vante’s blood, along with Joni and Sarah’s skilled hands, he would have died.

D'Vante's death shattered the group's spirit like a freight train derailment, and it took everything JT had in him to send D'Vante off on his last flight—its destination—Valhalla. That night, the group saw a side of JT they never knew existed. Out of pure rage, he had lashed out viciously in unrelenting vengeance against D’s killers.

Each new day in their discombobulated world brought challenges and tribulations from every angle. At times, they seemed insurmountable, yet JT Clarke and the group centered around the ranch found ways to cope with the reality of what their world had become.

Now, as they settled in for the long haul and the unpredictability of northern Wisconsin in late October, a burning question lingered in their minds.

Could it possibly get any worse?

©2025 Joseph D. Nirmaier (P)2025 Joseph D. Nirmaier

A Gem of a Story

Twenty-One Days is a wonderful continuation of the series of a post-apocalyptic tale of survival by Joseph D Nirmaier. In this third installment we are met by friends, new, old, and ones thought to have been forever lost by the nuclear disaster. We also meet new rivals, and watch as JD and his growing “family” learn how to navigate the new dangers which threaten to destroy them.

Our author does a fantastic job of finding the line between violence and tender compassion as he and his group begin to feel the reality of their dangerous new world and what they have needed to to to survive starts demanding attention.

There is a delicate balance when justifying actions against others as moral or self-serving. The group is beginning to seek the defining lines between when to kill and when not to, all the while praying they will make the right decisions.

I very much enjoyed the book. John Hutchinson did a masterful job in narrating. While this third book contains all of the drama and excitement of the first two, it is my opinion that this installment takes us deeper into several of the characters, I felt their joys and their sorrows, fears and frustrations much moreso. It was very well written, with no deviation from the first two books, just bringing me much closer.

It’s a definite must read… or must-listen in this case. I can’t wait to see what Joseph D Nirmaier comes up with next.