For fans of David Baldacci, Tom Clancy, and Robert Ludlum...
In Los Angeles, the president is killed in a brazen terrorist suicide attack. Halfway across the globe, an American airliner is hijacked by another group of Middle Eastern extremists and forced to make a brief stop in Libya. Events that are first seen as unconnected soon are proven to be part of an interconnected plan to strike at the heart of the United States.
On opposite coasts, FBI Agent Art Jefferson and National Security Adviser Bud DiContino race to manage situations as they spiral toward disaster. With the hijacked airliner racing toward the United States, its cargo hold filled with what intelligence analysts believe is a nuclear weapon, the only hope for the passengers' lives comes in the form of an audacious rescue plan to be executed by the highly secretive Delta Force.
From its pulse-pounding opening to its action-packed climax, Cloudburst grabs you and will not let go. Ranging from the violent assassination of the President on the streets of Los Angeles to covert action against terrorist havens in North Africa, from the halls of power in Washington to a highjacked airliner racing toward the heart of the United States, Cloudburst takes the reader on a riveting journey as FBI agents and elite counterterrorist units fight a desperate battle to save millions of innocents, and bring those responsible to justice.
From Publishers Weekly
A gripping blend of techno-thriller and detective story, Pearson's first novel is set in an all-too-convincing near future. The American President is assassinated in L.A. by a terrorist suicide squad. Shortly thereafter, an American 747 is hijacked to Libya, and when it sets off on its return flight home, it is carrying a deadly device, the second step in a plot by Libyan leader Muammar Khadafy, who plans to destroy Washington, D.C., in a nuclear holocaust. As Pearson's carefully structured plot unfolds, the FBI hunts down the terrorists' supporters while Delta Force moves to recapture the plane. Only the cooperation of Fidel Castro can save the aircraft and its passengers. FBI agent Art Jefferson, Delta Force captain Sean Graber, pilot Bart Hendrickson and other players are effectively characterized in economical prose. The suspense runs at a high pitch right up to the tense confrontation between Delta Force and the terrorists--at 20,000 feet over the Atlantic, with no room for error or hesitation. Genre fans will find this a must for midsummer reading. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
For fans of David Baldacci, Tom Clancy, and Robert Ludlum...
In Los Angeles, the president is killed in a brazen terrorist suicide attack. Halfway across the globe, an American airliner is hijacked by another group of Middle Eastern extremists and forced to make a brief stop in Libya. Events that are first seen as unconnected soon are proven to be part of an interconnected plan to strike at the heart of the United States.
On opposite coasts, FBI Agent Art Jefferson and National Security Adviser Bud DiContino race to manage situations as they spiral toward disaster. With the hijacked airliner racing toward the United States, its cargo hold filled with what intelligence analysts believe is a nuclear weapon, the only hope for the passengers' lives comes in the form of an audacious rescue plan to be executed by the highly secretive Delta Force.
From its pulse-pounding opening to its action-packed climax, Cloudburst grabs you and will not let go. Ranging from the violent assassination of the President on the streets of Los Angeles to covert action against terrorist havens in North Africa, from the halls of power in Washington to a highjacked airliner racing toward the heart of the United States, Cloudburst takes the reader on a riveting journey as FBI agents and elite counterterrorist units fight a desperate battle to save millions of innocents, and bring those responsible to justice.
From Publishers Weekly
A gripping blend of techno-thriller and detective story, Pearson's first novel is set in an all-too-convincing near future. The American President is assassinated in L.A. by a terrorist suicide squad. Shortly thereafter, an American 747 is hijacked to Libya, and when it sets off on its return flight home, it is carrying a deadly device, the second step in a plot by Libyan leader Muammar Khadafy, who plans to destroy Washington, D.C., in a nuclear holocaust. As Pearson's carefully structured plot unfolds, the FBI hunts down the terrorists' supporters while Delta Force moves to recapture the plane. Only the cooperation of Fidel Castro can save the aircraft and its passengers. FBI agent Art Jefferson, Delta Force captain Sean Graber, pilot Bart Hendrickson and other players are effectively characterized in economical prose. The suspense runs at a high pitch right up to the tense confrontation between Delta Force and the terrorists--at 20,000 feet over the Atlantic, with no room for error or hesitation. Genre fans will find this a must for midsummer reading.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Hyperreal whiz-bang first novel by a gifted high-tech specialist. The President is assassinated in L.A. by Libyan terrorists as the first act of a three-act vengeance scenario by Qaddafi, who is dying of leukemia from tainted blood introduced into him during surgery by order of the former CIA head. James ``Bud'' DiContino, named head of the National Security Agency when his boss is killed with the President, leads an immense cast of all variety of specialists whose working methods Pearson knows inside out and relates here with impressive realism. Bud answers directly to the new President as his team sets out to bust up acts two and three of Qaddafi's plot. An American 747 out of Athens is hijacked by a terrorist team, flown to Benghazi, loaded with a thermonuclear device, and then headed toward the States to blow itself up, praise Allah, in a suicide mission over the already mourning Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, we follow various FBI, Secret Service, and CIA teams as they try to fill in backgrounds on the terrorists, and we join an antiterrorist military team out to thwart the hijackers. We also hop all over the globe as enormous force is mobilized both to blow the passenger-laden 747 out of the air, if necessary, and to strike a fantastically big retaliatory atomic attack on Libya. Pearson keeps us alert to the drama aboard the plane and to a rising storm front causing the diversion of the aircraft to Havana, where it's refueled after a disastrous landing that all but disables it. And we also follow the progress of Joe Anderson, who may be able to disarm the nuclear device if by some miracle he can get close enough to it. The widespread plot includes an attempt to pluck out of Libya a high-placed informant who's kept the US up to date on Qaddafi's hideous activities. Newcomer Pearson ranges about smartly indeed with mind- boggling expertise. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.