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Summary and Reviews of Headwind by John Nance

Headwind by John J. Nance

Headwind

by John J. Nance
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • First Published:
  • Apr 1, 2001, 400 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Mar 2002, 400 pages
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Book Summary

An ex-president of the US is in danger. Captain Dayton flies him on an against-the-clock mission to find a safe haven while Harris's rumpled and outgunned lawyer wrestles an international team of legal sharks snapping at their biggest prize yet.

Athens, Greece. As a Boeing 737 noses into its gate, its crew is suddenly confronted by Greek officials waiting to arrest one of its passengers, a beloved ex-president of the United States, John Harris. Believing Harris's life is in danger, Captain Craig Dayton stages a daring escape by backing the jet away from the gate without clearance and taking off down a vacant runway.

The dilemma for Captain Dayton and his precious cargo is that Peru has signed an Interpol Warrant for President Harris's arrest, using the same treaty employed by Spain to extradite former Chilean dictator Pinochet. The Peruvian government alleges that Harris is personally responsible for a supposed CIA-led strike against a biological weapons factory during his term of office. But Harris's--and the U.S. State Department's--nightmare is this: There is no place to hide because every nation in the Pan-American federation has signed the treaty and any one of them must honor the warrant and give Peru what it wants: a presidential pawn to humiliate on the international stage.

Captain Dayton flies Harris and his crew on an against-the-clock mission to find a safe haven--from Greece to Sicily to Ireland--while Harris's rumpled and outgunned lawyer wrestles an international team of legal sharks snapping at their biggest prize yet. Headwind is another electrifying novel from "a wonderful storyteller" (Chicago Tribune) whose "hand for crackling intensity remains peerless" (Kirkus Reviews).

Gate 35,Athens International Airport, Greece -Monday -2:00 P.M.

"Captain, I think you 'd better get back here!"

The chief flight attendant said as she burst into the cockpit. Captain Craig Dayton snapped his head around and began reaching for his seat belt as soon as he saw the worried expression on Jillian Walz's face.

"What 's the matter?" Dayton asked, aware that his copilot had shifted around in the right seat to look at her as well.

Jillian shut the door and stood in the tiny space aft of the center console, breathing hard and signaling him to wait. She watched a police car pull up on the ramp of the newly opened airport and stop in front of their Boeing 737,its blue lights flashing. Dayton followed her gaze and spotted the patrol car.

"We 're about to get in the middle of a diplomatic crisis," Jillian said. "The gate agent ..."

A voice on the overhead speakers cut her short. "Flight forty-two, operations."

The copilot ...

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews
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.

Publisher's Weekly
The real-life Pinochet extradition case inspires this international legal thriller peppered with bestselling author Nance's trademark razor-edge escape scenarios and death-defying aviation theatrics. [A] surefire bestseller.

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