Headwind [Import] [Paperback]

John J. Nance (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330482475
• ISBN-13: 978-0330482479
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,815,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John J. Nance, aviation analyst for ABC News and a familiar face on Good Morning America, is the author of several bestselling novels including Fire Flight, Skyhook, Turbulence, and Orbit. Two of his novels, Pandora's Clock and Medusa's Child, have been made into highly successful television miniseries. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Nance is a decorated pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield. He lives in Washington State.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down!!!!!!, August 21, 2001

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Headwind (Hardcover)

OK. Let's get the biases right up front. I am a pilot, a lawyer and I have an interest in politics and current events. So naturally I am going to give five stars to a book that deals with all four, right? Not so fast, Pilgrim.

Mr. Nance has earned his rating with this novel which details the efforts of the President of Peru to arrest and extradite a former United States President under the Treaty Against Torture (the same treaty that Chilean ex-President Pinochet recently dealt with). The story takes us from Greece to Sicily to London to Belfast and to Galway as well as from Laramie, Wyoming to Denver, Colorado on a ride in a Cessna Skyhawk that none of us would want to have been on. The international flying is an odyssey of the finest kind as the captain of the German commercial airline's 737, a US Air Force Reserve Officer, tries to keep his former Commander in Chief from being arrested much to the chagrin of his British First Officer who sees their jobs evaporating with each new escapade.

Add to the excellent flying portion of the story, a chess game on the ground between two international lawyers with very different backgrounds and the story only gets better.The Peruvian government has hired a British Barrister who is tops in his field. The American ex-president hires a former partner, who while once a very able international lawyer, has had a bit of a time of it lately, having been disbarred as a Judge and suspended as a lawyer and is waiting out his suspension teaching classes at the University of Wyoming when the call comes.

The Peruvian government seems to have irrefutable evidence of the crimes of the former president and therein lies more twists and turns in this most compelling novel.

The characters are well drawn, the dialogue flows smoothly and the story moves seamlessly across the pages of the book until, alas, you are at the end. Looking for a page turner? Look no further.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nail-biter based on a dubious premise, July 3, 2002

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Headwind (Paperback)

Craig Dayton is the American pilot of a German 737 passenger jet. After boarding travelers in Athens for a flight to Rome, Craig is faced with the Greek police who want to arrest one of his First Class passengers, John Harris, a former President of the United States. Harris is wanted on an Interpol warrant initiated by the Peruvian government. Peru charges that Harris, in violation of an international treaty against torture, sanctioned atrocities that occurred during a CIA-sponsored raid on a Peruvian heroin factory during the Harris Administration. As a former U.S. Air Force pilot now in the reserves, Dayton's instinct to protect a former Commander-in-Chief takes over, and he backs his jet away from the gate, overturning a loaded baggage tram in the process, and vamooses out of Dodge, so to speak. Thus begins a chase across Europe, Harris in the 737 pursued by the Lear carrying Stuart Campbell, the international lawyer retained by Peru to bring the fugitive to bay.

HEADWIND is an engrossing read if one accepts the shaky premise that an American pilot, sufficiently dedicated to guard the welfare of an ex-President, would also be enough of a cowboy to endanger his job, his crew, and the 118 paying passengers aboard his plane. To a certain degree, Dayton is a hero of the plot, though a bigger one is Jay Reinhart, a friend of the ex-President's and an expert in international law, whom Harris retains as his attorney. Jay, a former Texas District Judge, has recently been reinstated to the bar after having suffered a suspension for falling in love with a female defendant on trial in his court for murder. In any case, Jay now has to scramble from his Wyoming hideaway to Europe where the chase is on.

Author John Nance does a swell job alternating the action between foreign courtrooms and the 737's flight deck, and there's sufficient tension, especially in the latter, for me to have gnawed away the edges of my expensive manicure. (Darn! Where's that emery board?) And all the while there's the question, "Is Harris really innocent of the charges?" After all, there's that pesky videotape.

Although the ending is cloyingly happy as all loose ends are tidied up - a pet peeve of mine, HEADWIND is the perfect thriller for your next plane flight. If you're going roundtrip coast to coast, you'll finish before you touch down on the home leg. Check to see if any of our ex-Presidents are in First Class as you board, and yell "Hey, Bubba!" if you see Bill.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HEADWIND - Flying into an international suspense thriller, June 28, 2001

By 

Dean Redfern (Indian River Shores, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Headwind (Hardcover)

A man without a country - that's what a former United States President has become during an innocent trip to Europe. An international arrest warrant has been issued against former President John Harris for alleged crimes that he is said to have committed during his tenure in office. Peru claims President Harris ordered a CIA-backed attack of a biological weapons factory that resulted in the deaths and carnage of Peruvian lives. Under the same international treaty that foiled Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet into a long detainment in England, Peru wants the former U.S. President arrested and extradited to Peru to stand trial.

The former President is on board a German commercial airline, en route to Rome, when he learns of his legal problems. Since most of the free world has signed the treaty, including the United States, it seems as though there is no place to run to. But the former President has friends in all the right places, including the cockpit, whose captain is a U.S. Air Force reservist who has strong feelings and loyalties about defending a U.S. President, active or otherwise.

The hunt for a safe haven, while on board a jetliner, makes for a fast-paced and exciting drama that is irresistible to put down. The velocity quickens, and even the headwinds build, until the plane takes the former President to his final destination.

This is a breakout novel of sorts for author John Nance as it has less to do about aviation, (as his fantastic previous airborne thrillers are), and more to do about the human, political and legal ironies of our times. There are a couple of courtroom dramas that bar none, as well as insightful forays into the decision processes of the Oval Office and 10 Downing Street, both of which give new meaning to the definition of leadership. This is pure adrenaline from takeoff to landing, and author John Nance at his very best.