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Terminal Event: A Novel
 
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Terminal Event: A Novel [Hardcover]

James S Thayer (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)


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Book Description

June 4, 1999

Page-turning suspense with a shocker ending -- a spine-chilling thriller as fresh as today's headlines about a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator drawn back into action when he suspects a bomber has caused a ghastly aviation crash.

Never before has a novel explored the grimly fascinating world of NTSB crash investigators in such riveting, authentic detail. Opening with a grisly crash site scene, Terminal Event follows NTSB investigator Joe Durant on his hunt for clues. His search is obsessive: his wife was on the plane and died in the crash.

Desperate to find answers for his devastated fifteen-year-old daughter, Sarah, Durant sets out to prove that the aircraft was destroyed by an evil bomber. With others determined to blame the crash on pilot error, Durant painstakingly searches through the tiny metal fragments, twisted chunks of aluminum, scattered body parts, and charred bits of flesh and bone that will point him to the killer. His pursuit turns frantic when the bomber sends the investigators a taunting "signature" -- a fragment of the same kind of metal used in the explosive device, something only the bomber would know -- and promises to bring down another plane in ten days. Durant races to find the bomber before he can strike again.

Combining high-voltage suspense with the kind of steely reporting that made The Perfect Storm and Into Thin Air bestsellers, Terminal Event is a spellbinding, moving story of a man who rediscovers his soul in the single-handed pursuit of a monster.


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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're intrigued about what a plane-crash scene looks like, and how investigators go about collecting evidence, Terminal Event will provide the details. If you like personal stories about believable people thrust into strange and terrifying situations, you'll find that here as well. James Thayer is the kind of writer who catches your attention early and makes you identify with his characters completely.

Joe Durant used to be a top investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. (When a cop remarks to him that he was an NTSB legend, Durant says, "We're all legends. Anybody who can work a crash site automatically becomes a legend. It's a nice benefit of the job.") But the job took its toll, and Joe left the profession to work for Boeing as an engineer. This career shift, however, didn't save his marriage; his wife walked out and Joe was left to raise his 15-year-old daughter on his own. One year after the split, Joe's wife returns for a visit--but tragically the plane she's taking from Sun Valley to Seattle crashes, killing everyone aboard. Filled with grief and guilt, Durant asks for his old job back, specifically to investigate this crash. As the FBI becomes involved, and fingers point at everyone from Idaho militiamen to warring drug dealers, Thayer never lets his careful prose go beyond the bounds of reason. His focus is always on the thoughts and feelings of Joe Durant--a very fallible but also entirely credible hero for this particular time and place.

Other examples of Thayer's art available in paperback: Five Past Midnight and White Star. --Dick Adler

From Booklist

An airplane crashes near Seattle. There are no survivors. Joe Durant, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator, teams up with his former colleagues to determine whether the crash was caused by a technical malfunction or a terrorist's bomb. But his interest in finding the answer is not entirely professional: his estranged wife, who may have been flying home to rejoin her family, died in the crash. This is a fascinating thriller, superior to Michael Crichton's best-selling air-crash novel Airframe (1996) and the equal of Ridley Pearson's Hard Fall (1992). Like Pearson, Thayer approaches the subject from a police-procedural point of view, presenting the crash-investigation process in precise detail. Thayer's technique--plenty of question-and-answer sessions, lots of false leads and frustration--generates tension as effectively as it dispenses information. Fans of Pearson and other procedural masters, including Ed McBain, will relish this genuinely engrossing novel, which contains a twist that few, if any, readers will see coming. David Pitt

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (June 4, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684842106
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684842103
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,478,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I served as a physician in the British Army during the Boer War. Wait. Sorry. That was Arthur Conan Doyle. I was raised in Spokane, and went to school in Pullman and Chicago. My wife Patti, our two daughters, and I live in Seattle. I'm trying to learn to play the tenor saxophone, but Coleman Hawkins needn't be looking over his shoulder. I teach novel writing at the University of Washington extension school, and maintain a blog about fiction writing (www.novelpro.net), where I discuss writing techniques each day.

 

Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars The story is acceptable, but the typography is excruciating., October 27, 1999
By 
Larry Larason (Gallup, New Mexico) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Terminal Event: A Novel (Hardcover)
Most reviews concentrate on the plot and character development. I believe this has been adequately covered by other reviewers. I want to point out that the typography in this tome is excruciating. There are no spaces after periods so that the whole thing reads like one run-on sentence. My wife gave up reading it after only a dozen pages. I finished the book, but I couldn't read it straight through the way I usually read a suspense novel, because I was fighting to find the ends of sentences all the way. I find it hard to believe that a reputable publisher would inflict this on readers.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A good summer read, August 7, 1999
By 
Phelps Gates (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Terminal Event: A Novel (Hardcover)
A real page-turner! Believable characters, and a plot whose twists and turns held my interest throughout. Be warned though... it's pretty gory! The author is skillful enough to move things along so fast that you don't stop to notice the gaping holes in logic (reservation tapes on a 2-week backup cycle that are erased in less than 10 days, and an FBI-sponsored burglary that makes no sense if you stop to think about it). And the retired teacher in me was appalled at the errors in grammar and spelling: "pouring" over reports... clothes on "hangars" ... wounds full of "puss" ... computer tapes are "overridden". Sigh! Spellcheckers aren't enough, folks!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous page turner!, December 30, 2002
This book was gripping from the start. Thayer does a great job at detailing crash sites and the remarkable actions of the NTSB. The relationship with the female FBI agent adds an interesting dimension, without the typical tacked on love story feel, and certainly without the expected happy ending.

It is an easy read, and I was also baffled by the nearly complete inaccuracy of the description on the back cover (there is never any suggestion of pilot error). However, if you can put aside the expectations of the story his publisher is advertising, this really is a great story.

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