During the top-secret testing of a new remote flight control box, something goes horribly wrong, and a Gulfstream nearly crashes. At the same time and, obviously in the same airspace, 747 captain Arlie Rosen flies his Albatross into trouble. Arlie, using visual flight control, flies into a cloud bank where he throws a propeller blade and crashes. He and his wife Rachel are rescued, but Arlie gets his pilot’s license revoked by an overzealous FAA inspector. This sends his daughter April and family friend Gracie on a campaign to clear Arlie’s name. They are met with the usual stonewall of bureaucracy, with a behind-the-scenes cover-up at work, as well.Even though we were aboard the Gulfstream when we know it took Arlie Rosen’s Albatross out of the sky, with the added bonus of sitting in with the head software engineer while he worried over the failing program that caused the crash, the book goes round and round, after round, between the government brass, the Rosen clan, and the software engineer as they slowly and laboriously figure out what was obvious to us by the end of Chapter One. When the resolution finally drags itself to the party, everything gets tidily tied up, all the nice guys win and get promoted, and there are smiles all around.With some fun, likeable characters, snappy dialogue, and a believable story line, this could have been a decent book. As it was, I couldn’t make myself warm to anybody. The Rosens lived a cushy existence and April had obviously never had a bad day in her charmed life. At 25, she’s a high-paid vice president at a cruise line and can just walk away from her job without a thought. Nobody at work minds, though, because she’s such an asset to the company. She lives in a high-rise condo. Gracie, her surrogate sister, is close to the family, though everyone is always quick to point out, not actually a part of it. Gracie has secured a position at Jantzen and Pruzan, a high-buck law firm that values her so much, they hand her the moon when she drops what must surely be a crushing workload to work on her personal issues, using her employer as a front, instead. She also has the amazing ability to never need to speak to a judge during business hours and instead chooses to bother them at home, where they let her in, hear her out, lecture her on impropriety, and then give her her way. She lives on a yacht and drives a Corvette.Dialogue is stilted and more often than not used as a forum for the author to complain about his dislike of slang. This only serves to put these self-righteous characters one plane further away from anywhere I want to be. Added to that is the utterly ludicrous plot that goes nowhere, circling the obvious around and around. We got it already. Why can’t any of these Pleasantville characters figure it out? This had to be the sloppiest government cover-up in history, which all could have been avoided if someone high up had told the FAA to back down and give Arlie his license back. But then there would have been no story.There wasn’t one anyway. This book was just plain unrealistic from start to finish, starred unlikeable characters reminiscent of a preachy 1950’s TV show, and had horrible dialogue.
Nance turns out another cool aviation thriller. What does a top secret military experiment have to do with the railroading of a professional pilot who crashed his plane in Alaskan waters? Why is the government seeking to immediately (without any investigation) place the blame for his crash on pilot error? Nance turns out a good thriller with interesting aviation background and delivers an interesting cast of characters, a clever plot, and a page turner of a novel. Not nearly as good as "Turbulence" but another good book with an interesting theme.
Do You like book Skyhook (2003)?
This was my first experience with Nance, and I'm happy to say it was a wonderful ride. David Wilson said it right when he said,Nance turns out another cool aviation thriller. What does a top secret military experiment have to do with the railroading of a professional pilot who crashed his plane in Alaskan waters? Why is the government seeking to immediately (without any investigation) place the blame for his crash on pilot error? "Nance turns out a good thriller with interesting aviation background and delivers an interesting cast of characters, a clever plot, and a page turner of a novel...
—Dan
