Fly By Wire

A new cargo plane crashes in France, and the National Transportation Safety Board sends Jammer Davis to investigate in Larsen’s latest thriller. Davis’ superiors want easy answers, and the easiest answer of all is “pilot error.” The plane has a sophisticated fly-by-wire design; if the crash was due to manufacturing, the economic cost of all the cargo shipments screeching to a halt would be catastrophic. Jammer has his doubts, however, and his investigation reveals a shocking conspiracy that has ties to a rash of terrorist bombings at oil refineries. Larsen is fast becoming a thriller writer to watch. He clearly knows his subject matter and has a knack for writing about technology without it getting in the way of the story or the characters. Fans of the aviation thrillers of John Nance and of Michael Crichton’s Airframe (1996) will find much to enjoy here. --Jeff Ayers