Last Light by Alex Scarrow

Amazon Summary:
It begins on a very normal Monday morning. But in the space of only a few days, the world's oil supplies have been severed and at a horrifying pace things begin to unravel everywhere. This is no natural disaster—someone is behind this. Oil engineer Andy Sutherland is stranded in Iraq with a company of British soldiers, desperate to find a way home, trapped as the very infrastructure of daily life begins to collapse around him. Back in Britain, his wife Jenny is stuck in Manchester, fighting desperately against the rising chaos to get back to their children in London as events begin to spiral out of control—riots, raging fires, looting, rape, and murder. In the space of a week, London is transformed into an anarchic vision of hell. Meanwhile, a mysterious man is tracking Andy's family. He'll silence anyone who can reveal the identities of those behind this global disaster. The people with a stranglehold on the future of civilization have flexed their muscles at other significant tipping points in history, and they are prepared to do anything to keep their secret—and their power—safe.
Review:
The world as we know it is ending, and it's not because of aliens or a mega-scale natural disaster. Why? Because for once it's not a CGI filled Roland Emmerich film! This has to be one of the most plausible apocalyptic scenarios out there. No oil=no transport=no food=panic=governmental loss of control=anarchy. It really does make sense. This novel however, is by no means perfect. Why?
1.  Lack of plausibility. So yes I said this is the most plausible apocalyptic scenario, but then Scarrow (I keep wanting to call him Scarecrow XD) uses the mother of all conspiracy theories (think The International on steroids) to explain the reason for it. Seriously?
2. Cliches/lack of originality. While there's no specific movie or book that this book resembles too closely, it tends to use a lot of thriller/disaster novel cliches. First the conspiracy theory, then the stereotypical "world's best assassin" character. These are easy ways for an author to explain why things happen (for the former) and add intensity (for the latter). The fact that Scarrow did this left me feeling a little cheated, because it seemed as if he just took the easy way out instead of actually taking the time to figure out a more likely reason for the disaster to happen and a more interesting/original way to build suspense. Also, once the British PM breaks the news, everyone panics, and you wind up with same old cliche disaster movie panic, rioting, anarchy, desperation, destruction, etc.
3. I don't know what to call this, but anyways... So Scarrow's adult novels all follow almost the same format of two plotlines that take place in two very different settings (often separated by time - here they are separated only by space) - in this case, England and Iraq. In Last Light he actually balanced the two plotlines very well - which was good - but there's more similarities in format than that. He also always kills off the more likeable of the plotlines' respective main characters right at the end of the book, something I find both annoying and kind of depressing. I really he hope he doesn't do that in the final TimeRiders book - I really don't want to see Liam, Maddy, or Sal die - it would be too painful to watch/read.
There is plenty of strong language present, but not so bad that one can't live with it.
All in all, a good apocalyptic/disaster novel, and a great cautionary tale. It really does show that...

I wouldn't recommend this book too highly if I were basing the rating purely on entertainment value - all the cliches make it sound like something we've all heard/seen before. However, the cautionary element is very relevant to our world today, so I will recommend that all of you (in other words, everyone - and that includes YOU) read it in the near future. I also highly recommend it to fans of apocalyptic disaster movies, such as The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, etc.
4/5 stars