Fiction, Teen Fiction, Fiction Subjects

Pandora's Clock

Name: Pandora's Clock
Author: John J. Nance
ISBN: 9780783815770

by John J. Nance

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Overview

Captain James Holland is the pilot on a routine flight from Frankfurt to New York, packed with people eager to be home for Christmas. When a passenger collapses from what appears to be a heart attack, Holland is forced to request an emergency landing at London's Heathrow Airport. But to his great surprise, the air traffic controllers will not let him land in England - they tell Holland that his sick passenger has contracted a dangerous new form of influenza and that the plane must return to Germany.

But when German officials also refuse the landing, and other European countries follow suit, Holland begins to suspect that he's in much more trouble than anyone's letting on. In fact, his sick passenger is carrying a deadly virus accidentally released from a Bavarian laboratory, and it is feared that everyone on board is now infected. At the same time, someone with access to the CIA's computers wants to shoot the plane out of the sky, and there is a United States ambassador on board with powerful terrorist enemies who want to see him dead. While the panic on the ground spreads from the White House Situation Room to a small airport in the Ukrainian Republic, Captain Holland has only one concern: Where and when can he land?

The biowarfare people call the bug a Level 4 pathogen. That means no cure. No hope. No survivors. Now it's loose on Quantum Flight 66. One passenger is already dead. The experts say in 48 hours the rest may follow. But James Holland, former U.S. fighter pilot and the pilot of this commercial Boeing 747, isn't ready to die--even if "they're" ready to blast him out of the sky.

About the Author, John J. Nance

John J. Nance is an aviation consultant for the ABC television network and airline correspondent for "Good Morning America." A professional writer and broadcaster for many years, Nance is also a licensed aerospace attorney, an Air Force reserve officer, and a full-time working airline captain for a major U.S. carrier.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A motley assemblage of travelers stranded-on plane, train or ship-by natural forces or man-made threat often provides fodder for gripping novels or movies. Nance (Blind Trust), well aware of this formula's potential, has concocted a doozy of a plot for his latest thriller. Shortly after Quantum Airlines Flight 66 departs Frankfurt, Germany, for New York, one of the passengers succumbs to an apparent heart attack. It may be, however, that Professor Ernest Helms was exposed to a doomsday virus just before boarding his flight; if so, more than 200 passengers and crew members could be dead within a matter of hours. Word of this imminent disaster leaks to governments and media organizations around the world, of course, and the jumbo jet is refused landing clearance everywhere. And when the CIA gets involved, its ambitious director schemes to have the plane destroyed by an infamous terrorist group. As the genre goes, so far, so good. But the suspense seldom mounts here, hindered by a surfeit of hyperbole (``What Erickson must be feeling is unfathomable!''), clunky writing and clichs. Though the author manages a few pulse-pounding sequences, his cardboard characters (most of the passengers are little more than props) and lame repartee keep this thriller on mundane terra firma. Still, Nance leaves the runway clear for a sequel, and fans hooked by Flight 66's dilemma can await the takeoff of #67. First serial to D magazine; major ad/promo; author tour. One-day (Sat.) giveaway at ABA. (Sept.)

Mary Frances Wilkens

Imagine that a man carrying the deadly Ebola virus is aboard an international aircraft that is headed for New York and full of people eager to be home for Christmas. Nance, accomplished pilot, author, and currently aviation consultant for "Good Morning America," brings such a nightmare to life in this unforgettable thriller. Captain James Holland has his hands full trying to get his packed airplane safely home yet he also has to deal with a cocky young copilot and demanding passengers (including a jabbering TV evangelist and an important U.S. ambassador). These obstacles are nothing, however, compared to the pressure he faces when he's forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger dies of a heart attack, and he discovers that every country, including the U.S., is refusing him entry. It seems that the man who died had been exposed to a rare virus strain crafted by the Soviets--an omega strain with a mortality rate of 100 percent. Captain Holland is a sympathetic character; the reader detects his primal fear yet respects his commanding demeanor. A uniquely suspenseful and terrifying story; expect demand due to the book's timely topic and heavy promotion.