The crisis brings out both the best and the worst in people – there is looting and profiteering, but people also cooperate to create emergency shelters. First, the hackers disable the software controlling the power grid, but then move on to the hardware, destroying switchgears and transmission lines. Manzano teams up with a fearless journalist called Shannon, and the two of them collaborate with Europol, the French and German governments, and a raft of other organisations all working together to keep things running while causing the minimum of panic. But who is involved and what are they demanding in return for holding Europe hostage for so long? Above all, is there any way to overturn their attacks and get things back to normal again? It soon becomes obvious that this is deliberate sabotage, a cybercrime of enormous proportions. More dramatically, there are outbreaks of cholera, and the food supply dwindles.Īlong the way, we are given brief glimpses into the mysterious workings of a sinister ‘Command Headquarters’. Some are mundane, such traffic light failure increasing traffic accidents, fuel pumps stopping so transport comes to a standstill, heating and hot water unobtainable, and the ATMs freezing so nobody has any cash.

As the hours without power turn into days, the dangers mount up. We are then transported rapidly in turn to Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands. The story starts when Piero Manzano, an Italian IT expert and sometime hacker, has a traffic accident at the moment the lights go out in Milan. A handful of experts in each country are struggling against all odds to keep emergency services going and to switch the power back on again. All over Europe the electricity is going out and the cooling stations of nuclear power plants are in danger of failing. Written by Marc Elsberg - In this cyber thriller, Austrian author Marc Elsberg takes us into a nightmarish world of power cuts on a massive scale.

Book blackout marc elsberg