Fly by Night

September 5, 2011
While Larsen deserves credit for crafting an unusual contemporary action hero, air crash investigator Jammer Davis, this sequel to 2010’s Fly by Wire doesn’t maintain altitude. Davis’s old boss at the National Transportation Safety Board recruits Davis, a single father whose wife died in a car accident, to find the truth behind the suspicious disappearance of a Blackstar, an advanced CIA unmanned aerial vehicle, near the Horn of Africa. The CIA wants to use an inquiry into the crash of a DC-3 near the Sudan as the pretext for Davis to get information about the Blackstar. Five minutes after landing in Khartoum, Davis is battling for his life and continues to do so for the rest of the book. All the standard plot devices are present and accounted for, including a love interest in the person of a sexy Italian doctor. Readers who demand little realism in their thrillers will be most rewarded.

October 1, 2011

Recently widowed, retired Air Force major Jammer Davis is dealing with a daughter who is growing up too quickly when he is asked to investigate a plane crash in the Horn of Africa. A top-secret device called Dark Star has disappeared, and the chase is on to retrieve it before terrorists can use it to unleash chaos. Davis, the very large and occasionally violent almost superhero from Larsen's earlier Fly by Wire, finds himself working with a pilot he despises and a gorgeous Italian doctor who serves the needy (and, yes, Jammer is needy). There are chases galore and plenty of tense action that could result in the massacre of Middle Eastern leaders and the destruction of the Great Pyramid. VERDICT Larsen, a former Air Force fighter pilot who's flown many combat missions, is a skilled writer who knows his technology but does not let it overwhelm his story. His latest is a solid action novel that will appeal to aviation thriller junkies who enjoy John J. Nance and Dana Haynes.--Robert Conroy, Warren, MI

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2011
Frank Jammer Davis (of Fly by Wire, 2010) returns in another aircraft-related technothriller. This time his boss wants him to investigate the crash of an airliner in the Sudan. Within five minutes of landing there, he finds his life in jeopardy. It isn't helping that Jammer's contact at NBN Airlines is Bob Schmitt. Years earlier, Jammer was responsible for both ending Schmitt's military career and causing him to lose his pilot's license, forcing Schmitt to leave the U.S. to find a job. Now both must work past their animosity to solve the riddle of the mysterious crash and stop a sinister plot from unfolding. Larsen clearly knows his military technology, and Jammer Davis is fast becoming one of the leading protagonists in the technothriller world. Another winner from Larsen that will appeal to fans of Clancy and Flynn.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)