bn.com
The Barnes & Noble Review
As the proclaimed master of the airplane disaster novel, John J. Nance -- the bestselling author of such well-received heart-stoppers as Blackout, Pandora's Clock, and Medusa's Child -- brings his aeronautic expertise to the field of the thriller. In Headwind, he slowly builds a story filled with great political peril and brings it to a shattering, high-flying crescendo.
After a worldwide treaty against torture is signed by nearly every nation on the planet, former U.S. president John Harris learns the hard way that he’s still a political pawn. During his presidency, a CIA-sponsored team of mercenaries attacked a Peruvian drug base, torturing and killing the innocent families forced to labor on and process the narcotics. Now the president of Peru is looking to embarrass the United States by making an example of Harris.
The commercial jet Harris is on has just landed in Athens when the Greek police attempt to serve an Interpol warrant for his arrest. Captain Craig Dayton, pilot of the Boeing 737, realizes that Harris has been set up for execution and makes a dangerous, unauthorized takeoff. Attempting to find refuge in Italy, Dayton and Harris learn that all of Europe will enforce the warrant and that no place on the continent is safe for them. Via cell phone, the ex-president hires Jay Reinhart, a noted international lawyer, to fight the warrant and find him a safe haven. Reinhart is forced to battle the brilliant Sir Stuart Campbell, an old enemy who represents Peru in the World Court.
Though some parallels to the Harrison Ford blockbuster Air Force One are bound to be made, Nance manages to use similar elements to a much different advantage. The jet itself becomes a symbolic prison for all onboard as fear and claustrophobia set in. Each new country initially appears as a possible haven, but as successive runways are closed to the lost flight the white-knuckle tension becomes even greater. With fuel running out, the passengers are forced to confront the idea that their very fate is being determined in a courtroom thousands of miles away. Headwind is a gripping, international action story that will chill and enliven readers whether on the ground or in the air. (Tom Piccirilli)
Tom Piccirilli is the author of eight novels, including Hexes and Shards, and his Felicity Grove mystery series, consisting of The Dead Past and Sorrow's Crown. He has sold more than 100 stories to the anthologies Future Crimes, Bad News, The Conspiracy Files, and Best of the American West II. An omnibus collection of 40 stories titled Deep into That Darkness Peering is also available. Tom divides his time between New York City and Estes Park, Colorado.
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
The real-life Pinochet extradition case inspires this international legal thriller peppered with bestselling author Nance's (Blackout, etc.) trademark razor-edge escape scenarios and death-defying aviation theatrics. Peru charges that former U.S. President John Harris ordered the brutal slaughter of peasant families by Shining Path mercenaries on a CIA-led raid on a Peruvian drug factory, in violation of the recently ratified International Treaty Against Torture. Powerful British lawyer Sir William Stuart Campbell takes Peru's case and, with a personal grudge to avenge, plans for the immediate arrest and extradition of the former president, who is on board a German commercial airline about to leave Athens. Tipped off by an American stewardess, the American and British pilots fake a hijacking and run for Rome, only to learn that warrants are waiting at every European airport. From the plane, Harris calls Jay Reinhart, a brilliant former law partner who was booted off the Texas bench, and gets him to take on Campbell's formidable team. While Reinhart jousts with Campbell in foreign courts, the pilots evade warrants by staying airborne with one stop at an American military base for refueling, playing nifty tricks that fool police, air traffic towers and their own company executives. Nance gets in jabs at diplomatic scuttling of military actions and sets up the David vs. Goliath legal battle with aplomb. Hair-raising near-disaster in the air, high courtroom drama and a strong international cast of characters make this surefire bestseller a nonstop read, with gut-wrenching twists that leave the reader scrabbling for a parachute. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In another timely thriller, aviation expert Nance places a former U.S. President in jeopardy of arrest on Interpol charges of conspiracy and torture in violation of a human rights treaty. The fast pace of the novel, read by the author, depends on always-available cell phones, satellite lines, and the maneuvers of a Boeing 737 air crew trying to protect ex-President John Harris as the intrigue and the jet move from Athens to Rome to Sicily to London to Dublin. Meanwhile, Harris's outmatched lawyer attempts to orchestrate a rescue or suppress the warrant and extradition. The carefully constructed international chess game between this legal David and Goliath is well balanced with the aviation action. The romantic subplot is the most predictable part of an otherwise engaging moral tale. Recommended. Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Retired Air Force pilot Nance shows the same skill at guiding a thriller through white-knuckle weather as he did as a civilian landing a 737. The titles of Nance's fiction (Blackout (2000), etc.) are usually a declaration of the particular hardship a pilot may face against overwhelming odds. This time, the titular headwind doesn't show up until the last 50 pages and isn't really meteorological but instead the power of legal headwinds a lawyer faces while guiding an airline pilot through his storm of difficulties in landing anywhere in Europe. Most nations have signed a world Treaty Against Torture, but, during US President (now ex-President) John Harris's tenure, a CIA-sponsored group of mercenaries invaded a drug base in Peru and tortured-then killed-drug workers and their families. President Miraflores of Peru has signed an Interpol Warrant for the arrest of Harris when his commercial jet lands in Athens. Piloting is Captain Craig Dayton, still a major in the Air Force reserve. Dayton knows that if arrested Harris will be held in a Greek jail, then bounced to Lima for a show trial and execution (by burning, as it happens). So, essentially, he hijacks his own jet and its hundred-odd passengers and flies off to Rome. But the Interpol arrant is in effect all over Europe and there's no place Dayton can land without surrendering his ex-Commander in Chief. Meanwhile, by cell phone, Harris hires Jay Reinhart, a brilliant international lawyer with a checkered past, to stay the warrants and get him safely back to the States. Reinhart fights against devilishly slick international lawyer Stuart Campbell, who represents Peru and chases after the fleeing jet as it approaches endlesslandingfields where it can't land. The first big showdown is in court, where swords will clash before an Irish judge. Hugely entertaining: a gripper that not only battles heavy headwinds while fuel runs low but plunges you headfirst into a meat-grinder of international legal complexities.