[Kirk McGarvey 05] • High Flight

First electronics. Then automobiles. Now the Japanese are ready to strike at our largest industrial export--airplanes. Intrigue and danger heighten as America faces its worst industrial challenge since the Great Depression. With the Cold War over, Japanese industrial espionage may succeed tomorrow where, fifty years ago, their military might failed. Expert saboteurs continue to strike at our vital industries, while hundreds of thousands of American jobs and countless billions of dollars hang in the balance. Ex-CIA field officer Kirk McGarvey is hired by Guerin Airline Company to investigate a recent rash of accidents and restore the company's, and America's, international reputation.

From Publishers WeeklyThrough 22 novels, Hagberg (Desert Fire) has become known as a suspense writer who delivers. This massive near-future thriller will only enhance his reputation. It is 1997, and a carefully designed plot by a cabal of Japanese business and political interests is ready to be implemented: electronic units have been inserted in the fleet of a major U.S. airline, enabling the cabal, via satellite signal, to destroy the planes in mid-flight. A confrontation between a Japanese submarine and a Russian ship then puts their parent nations on the brink of war. In the U.S., a powerful newsletter publisher who believes that his country must confront the Japanese now, rather than be destroyed economically later, learns of the cabal's plot but plans to strike first by enacting the sabotage plan and blaming it on the Japanese government. To do so, he puts together a charismatic team composed of a deadly former East German assassin and two eccentric half-brothers, one an eco-terrorist, the other a computer whiz. Pitted against all this evil is ex-CIA operative Kirk McGarvey (returning from Critical Mass), who is hired by Guerin Airlines to protect its interests?but when McGarvey discovers the truth, few will believe him. Though overlong and episodic, Hagberg's narrative maintains its pace, and, by the final pages, with planes falling from the skies and WWIII seemingly inevitable, readers will be so engrossed they won't want to blink. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library JournalGuerin Airline Company, plagued by mysterious accidents, hires ex-CIA officer Kirk McGarvey to investigate. He discovers that a Japanese conglomerate has planted a bomb in the engines of each Guerin airliner. Edward Reid, an anti-Japanese fanatic, also learns of the devices and plots to use this knowledge to his advantage. Japan, meanwhile, must deal with a scheme by rabid nationalists to start a war with Russia. After 14 American passenger planes explode, McGarvey rushes to convince the Russian, Japanese, and American governments that this was not an act of war but a terrorist attack. Hagberg (Desert Fire, Tor Bks., 1993) resurrects the worn-out ex-CIA officer scenario but combines it effectively with the current political milieu to keep readers' interest peaked. Although a bit long, this novel should appeal to those who like military, political, and espionage fiction. For all public libraries.?Grant A. Fredericksen, Illinois Prairie Dist. P.L., MetamoraCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.