Customer Reviews

Headwind

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Headwind is impossible to put down after the first page. The suspense never lets up as the story unfolds quickly. Ex-president John Harris, his assistant, and a secret service agent are about to land in Athens Greece. The police are waiting for his 737 to land in order to arrest Harris for violating the Treaty Against Torture. Peru is claiming that a CIA operation resulted in the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians and was santioned by then President Harris. The pilot, Craig Dayton, is a U.S. Airforce reserve military who backs the plane out and takes off in a daring escape.

The plane makes its way to Italy and on to Ireland before trying to get back to the United States. In the meantime while onboard, John Harris hires an old friend, Jay,an attorney who has been teaching international law in Laramie, Wyoming to represent him. The legal battle is finally fought in Ireland with a wonderful series of legal manuevers [...]

Read the book for the rest of the story. The characters are well developed, the dialogue is believable, and the landings are incredibly suspenseful.

John Nance's theme is thrillers about or occurring on airplanes. In Headwind, his latest, the airplane action is less interesting that what happens on the ground, but the story is arresting anyway. Former US president John Harris is traveling on a commercial flight that makes a stopover at Athens (Greece). Just before departure, the captain is informed that he must delay to allow police who are on their way to arrive and arrest one of his passengers-the former president. The captain-a US national, Air Force reserve officer who is master of a German-flagged commercial flight-doesn't like the way that sounds and fakes an emergency so that he can take off and continue to Rome. What he doesn't know is that the Italian police are also waiting to serve an international warrant on the former president, and police are on standby in nearly every European nation! In the 1980's, in an effort to be able to punish human rights violations by dictators, most nations signed a treaty that made the infliction of torture by any official in a country a "borderless" crime. In other words, a warrant could be taken out by people in one country and served on a citizen of a second country while in a third country-and extraditions treaties would not apply. This is the treaty that was employed for a Spanish court to claim jurisdiction to try former Chilean ruler Pinochet and to have him arrested in England. That actual case dragged on for quite some time and was finally moot because of Pinochet's age and health. In the novel, it seems that the current dictator of Peru had a brother who was killed in a terrorist raid on a drug processing plan some years ago. The claim is that the raid, which included the torture of women and children who were there, was a covert CIA action sanctioned by then President Harris. The dictator's avowed purpose is to take Harris to Peru, give him a trial, and execute him. The treaty would allow him to do that. The principal characters are the airline captain and a "defrocked" judge who has just been readmitted to practice law. The former judge was a junior partner in the former president's law firm years ago, and is the one person Harris wants to help him now. This, of course, drives the US State Department crazy. The story line is good, the characters are interesting, and the novel is a good, solid read. Reader will enjoy some good barbs thrown at bureaucrats, learn something about international law, and learn a lot more than they probably want to about the fuel problems of flying a Boeing 737 from Ireland to the United States.

It's super great for a light read!!! John really knows what he's talking about. I'm a plane fanatic, and I find no information about any of the planes in the Headwind incorrect. It's a GREAT book. 5 stars.

This was my first novel by Nance and it was outstanding!! I am an avid reader - but finishing a novel in 24 hour period is fast for me!! I have read some reviews in the past that stated "couldn't put it down" - this is, indeed, one of them. Pilots, attorneys and politicians all thrown together in an international setting on a fast pace! What else could you ask for!

I have read thirteen books by Nance and most have been exceptional thrillers and almost all have been five star quality. This novel followed that pattern until the last 100 or so pages and then the prose was so over the top that I loss interest. The ending was so simplistic that it made the entire story seem so what.

Greek officials try to arrest an ex-president of the US under an Interpol warrant issued by Peru - the captain, a Colonel in the active Air Force Reserves feels like he has a duty to protect his former Commander in Chief - he backs the 737 out of the gate at the Athens International Airport with his reverse thrusters - then a series of wild and dangerous flights ensue from airport to airport and then . . . [This part of the story was exciting and lived up to Nance's expected and well written prose.]

The ex-president hires a former associate that was defrocked as a judge and is now teaching at a law school in Laramie, Wyoming - this lawyer while doing internet research is also contacting legal firms in foreign countries to determine where he should have the plane land - the plane lands at several airports to quickly find out that they are going to ship the ex-president direct to Peru - there is a lot of subterfuge going on to keep the authorities and Peru's international attorney at bay - has the airplane been high-jacked? - has it crashed? - did the ex-president slip away? - finally the lawyer who is afraid to fly arrives in Europe and then . . .

This may be a five star read for you as you may like the soft ending. Or you could pickup Final Approach, Medusa's Child or Pandora's Clock for a spine-tingling aviation thriller that will keep you flipping pages to the very end.

Author al-Qaeda Strikes Again

I was not a fan. It wasn't very aviation-oriented. I suppose if you're into "Law and Order" style antics onboard a moving vehicle, this might be a good read (I'm not really into those kind of books). For me, this novel left me sitting there and wondering when anything remotely exciting would happen and why the only exciting events seemed "forced" (read the trip to Denver and the dash from Ireland to Maine and you'll understand exactly what I'm saying).

This book grabs you from the very first page. Just as they were getting ready to depart EuroAir Flight 42 is told by ground control to stand by. One of the stewardesses finds out through a friend at the terminal that the Greek authorities are preparing to serve an international arrest warrant on one of its passengers, former U. S. President John Harris. Capt. Craig Dayton does not like what is about to transpire so he creates an international incident by taking off from the runway without air traffic control clearance.

Peruvian president, Alberto Miraflores has evidence that Harris ordered the death of Peruvian citizens while being president of the United States. Using the World Court system he manages to get a warrant that will force every country to extradite John Harris for the torture and deaths of Peruvian citizens. The president is unaware of giving the orders and retains the legal services of Jay Reinhart, an expert in international law. The flight crew races around the clock trying to find a safe place to land while Reinhart uses his legal expertise to figure out how to quash the World Court subpoena and find out the truth as to what happened in Peru.

Inspired by the news coverage of the extradition hearings for former Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet, Nance shows what can happen when a government goes too far in trying to punish foreign leaders. Every aspect of this book has been thoroughly researched in order to make this a realistic courtroom drama. Nance knows how to attract reader interest with his novels and this one is no exception. It is an edge of your seat thriller combined with a courtroom drama. What more could you ask for?