Medusa's Child - Hardcover

Nance, John J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385483430 ISBN 13: 9780385483438

Publisher: Doubleday, 1997

Synopsis

Everything in America is about to stop... 10,000 feet over Washington, D.C.!

With the same breathtaking heroics that brought his bestselling Pandora's Clock international acclaim, John J. Nance once again spins today's headlines--this time about the threat of nuclear terrorism--into an all-too-realistic story of high-flying suspense.  

For thirty-year-old captain Scott McKay, the transport run from Miami to Denver will give him the money he desperately needs to keep his fledgling air cargo company flying.  When a mysterious crate is discovered on his plane, however, McKay is ordered to abandon his present course and fly the crate and its owner, Vivian Henry, to Washington, D.C., before going to Denver.  McKay takes the forced detour in stride--until a strange noise comes from deep inside the crate.  It is the voice of Vivian's husband, Dr. Rogers Henry, warning that the shipment they are carrying is actually a fully armed Medusa device, a thermonuclear bomb that can destroy every computer chip over an entire continent, and blast the Silicon Age back to the Stone Age.  And it is set to go off within hours.  

As panic spreads from the small community of nuclear scientists who used to work for Dr. Rogers Henry to the White House and eventually to the general public, a group of rogue military officers conspires to disobey the President's orders and secure the technology of the Medusa device, whatever the cost.  Will Captain McKay and his crew trust their own instincts to dispose of the bomb, or will they let a misguided government dictate their actions?

Using his inside knowledge of the airline industry, as well as his expertise as a pilot, John J.  Nance has once again turned our worst fears into a terrifyingly realistic story.  Medusa's Child will take readers into the center of a spine-tingling crisis.

About this title

Review

If you miss the great airborne adventures of writers like the late Ernest K. Gann, John Nance might help take up some of the slack. His Pandora's Clock--it became a TV movie--featured a nasty virus rampant at 35,000 feet. His latest has the widow of a world-class scientist trying to deliver to the Pentagon an invention that could shut down computers everywhere, thus ending civilization (and online bookselling) as we know it. Lots of hairy, if somewhat implausible, action--sure to be exploited in another TV movie.

From the Publisher

A new novel of airborne suspense by the bestselling author of Pandora's Clock!

Praise for John J. Nance's Books:

"Nance combines exquisite suspense and cardiac-arrest action to create the ultimate flying adventure. If you read this on an airliner, you're a lot braver than I am."
--Stephen Coonts, author of Final Flight and The Minotaur

"Pandora's Clock will do for planes what the movie Speed did for buses. John Nance's riveting thriller is a fast, fun read that never lets up."
--Phillip Margolin, author of Gone, But Not Forgotten and The Burning Man

"Fasten your seat belts! John Nance turns air disaster into a gripping investigative novel. His professional skills as both pilot and writer combine to make Final Approach a compelling and all-too-realistic story."
--James Michener

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0385483430
• ISBN 13: 9780385483438
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 388