Fire Flight

Book excerpt: The New York Times–bestselling author “successfully melds a timely topic, forest fires, with his specialty, pulse-pounding airborne excitement” (Booklist). Veteran pilot Clark Maxwell thought his firebombing days were well behind him. But when Jerry Stein, Maxwell’s friend and airtanker fleet-owner, calls at the height of the fire season to beg him to reenter the war, he doesn’t hesitate. A pair of ferocious forest fires is raging out of control, threatening to destroy Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and incinerate thousands of area homes. After a mysterious string of violent airborne accidents among the airtanker fleet claims the lives of some of the most fearless and experienced veterans, a paranoia starts to spread . . . In the middle of the area’s worst wildfire season in history, Maxwell is convinced that a sinister cover-up is behind the rash of horrific air disasters. Were the planes’ inspection papers forged? Is someone capitalizing on these crashes? As he races to unravel a very real mystery and prevent a natural disaster of massive proportions, Maxwell’s probe reaches the upper levels of the very government agencies charged with mounting the aerial firefighting effort—a move that for wholly unexpected reasons just may cost him his life . . . and the life of Karen Jones, the married smoke jumper with whom he seems to have fallen in love. In amazing detail, with the signature authenticity only a veteran pilot could provide, John J. Nance creates a hair-raising thriller that will leave readers breathless from cover to cover. “Nance’s best book in years.” —Publishers Weekly