I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review This is a fast-paced and very exciting thriller about the investigation into a horrific crash of an Airbus 320 plane attempting to land, into a Boeing 737 about to take off from Kansas City airport. Although written back in 1990, the book, with its very detailed depiction of the problems arising in investigating air-crashes, is still relevant to current aviation disasters such as those affecting the Malaysian Airlines and Germanwings planes over the last two years – even though the causes of each disaster differ. Joe Wallingford and his National Transportation Safety Board team have to battle so many different interested parties in the search for the true cause(s) of the crash – all on a very low budget, and with substantial (and deleterious) interference from their boss. You would expect that the airline owning the two planes would want to dispute any blame apportioned to their company, with respect to the adequacy of their pilots. But when the investigation also has to consider the company management structure, financial problems and maintenance protocols, it is no surprise that North American Airlines is desperate to find another focus for the investigators. Luckily for them, it might have been an assassination of a highly unpopular politician killed in the crash, or there may have been military involvement (after all you can never believe their denials), and politicians of every hue are manipulating the “facts” to suit their own agenda. Conspiracy theories abound. There is not so much a cover-up (or more accurately plural cover-ups) as everyone trying to save their own skin in the (perhaps mistaken) belief that their particular peccadilloes had no bearing on the disaster. And then there are the bigots who want to blame Airbus (French manufacturer) because American companies should buy American planes. The thriller is chock-a-block with red herrings. That Joe and his team do get to the truth in the end is due to a lot of hard work, and fighting through the obfuscation of nearly everyone connected to the disaster. However, the real reason for the crash comes as a surprise right at the end, and relies on the confession of someone that no-one thought to ask. An all round excellent book, and I hope to read more by John Nance in the future.

If you like a good mystery and the Discovery channel then this is right up your street. People life's are thrown into total disarray by an aviation disaster at Kansas City airport when two aircraft collide on the taxiway. Charged with finding out the cause of the crash Joe Wallingford Inspector in Charge from National Transport Safety Board struggles with the politics surrounding his every move. It is not as if trying to decide whether sabotage, weather, design , interference or human error is hard enough, the politics start to interfere with the investigation. The author has written a very exciting mystery cleverly using the investigation process as his backbone to the book. First published in 1992 I very glad we are getting another chance to read it, but now with everyday things like Airbus, mobile phones and proper airport security in their infancy.