Reader Advice: Bullets Shot Through Gas Tanks Do Not Cause Explosions

Chuck writes: 

Gold of Kings was an excellent book.

One minor flaw in the story: You can’t shoot a bullet through a gas tank of a car and cause an explosion. Makes for good movie but won’t work realistically. Check with any fire investigator and they should affirm that info.

Even a tracer won’t cause the care to explode. It may ignite the gasoline as it flows out of the tank but it will not explode.

Still a good story and you will probably never use that line again, but just in case.

 

Dear Chuck,

You know, I worried about this a lot. But I needed an explosion. I wanted that guy to get toasted. The story cried out for it. Of course I got it wrong here; it’s the risk when story hunger gets in the way of facts.

I remember one time early in John Grisham’s career, he actually asked in the afterword for readers NOT to write and tell him he’d moved a block of DC ten blocks closer to the White House, or something like that. I prefer to get the readers’ responses, myself. But in any case, I’m really glad you enjoyed the tale.