Customer Reviews

Vultures in the Sky

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Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas White has several major problems. He is commander of an understaffed and under equipped squadron stationed on Vancouver Island and his Wing Commander despises everything Lieutenant-Colonel White stands for. He resents his life style, the closeness of his squadron, and his gung ho attitude as a fighter jock. If Wing Commander Banks knew of his eyesight problems thanks to a freak injury, which is not explained well, he would be history.

But after the apparent shoot down of a patrol plane by an unknown hostile fighter aircraft, White isn't about to tell him. White knows it was not some mechanical failure as the brass believes and is convinced that the patrol plane was a victim of enemy action. Despite being ordered to do nothing more that support the search and rescue activities, he begins to investigate. His investigation begins to accumulate evidence, especially when a survivor of the downed patrol plane is found, that it was shot down. Over the next several weeks, he begins to uncover evidence of the existence of a faux military unit operating in the area with links to his past.

Primarily an action adventure novel, this debut novel works best in that area with a number of authentic flying sequences that directly relate to the author's military experiences. He clearly is operating under the "write what you know" principle and on those levels, this book works. When he strays from his chosen field, the novel becomes slow moving and nearly grinds to a halt.

The character development in this novel is limited and awkwardly handled through several secondary storylines. These diversions from the main plot and storyline are extremely slow and bring the book to a virtual standstill. The dialogue and character interactions through the secondary storylines do not read as if these are real people and seem to serve no more than background filler material. Almost nothing is accomplished in these sections for moving the story forward and if they had been edited out, this novel would have been a more enjoyable read.

However, depite those shortcomings, overall this debut novel is an enjoyable read. The plot and action sequences are well done and the author manages to grab and hold the reader's interest. With or without some minor editing in the future, this is an author to keep an eye on in the action adventure field.

A Canadian Arcturus maritime patrol plane mysteriously disappears on a routine patrol out of Comox, a Canadian Air Force base on Vancouver Island. As reports filter in it becomes apparent that an equipment failure was not the cause of the crash.

Lt. Colonel Doug White, commander of a CF-18 Hornet squadron based at Comox, institutes a clandestine investigation of the event. His initiative pits him against the base commander in solving the mystery of the Arcturus loss.

Along the way, Doug suffers an accident with his eyes imperiling his flight status. The discovery that MIG-25 Foxbat aircraft are flying through Canadian air space with USAF markings deepens the mystery.

In the process of the investigation and aggravation of the base commander, one of the pilots in his squadron is lost during air to air combat with a USAF marked plane. Eventually, many more players become involved in this delightful story that has a completely authentic military setting and a surprise ending that is not contrived and in no way detracts from the story.

This is Shields McTavish's first novel, and it is very well written. The plot is good and the action moves right along. He is a skilled writer and has experience in the area in which his story is involved. He was a Canadian military intelligence officer and electronics adviser to their National Defense Headquarters.

The story revolves around the commanding officer of a Canadian fighter squadron, Lt. Cdr. Douglas White, a drug smuggling ring that uses a fake USAF base in Canada to fly drugs in from Mexico, and the shooting down of a Canadian Air Force Arcturus patrol plane by the drug smugglers fighter escorts (Russian built MiG 'Foxbats' showing USAF insignia.) Commander White sets about to bring the mystery to resolution.

Altogether, this is a good story which will hold your interest. The cover art is good, and the publishers have done a good job, with only minor proofreading problems. For example, the word 'dais,' (referring to a speaker's platform) is consistently misspelled 'dias,' and one character's name is variously spelled 'Concorde' and 'Concord.' Small, insignificant errors that do not detract from the reading pleasure.

Altogether, this is a fine story and I'm pleased that Mr. McTavish is working on his second novel.

Joseph H. Pierre