Pandora's Clock » (Abridged)

John J. Nance, aviation analyst for ABC News and a familiar face on Good Morning America, is the author of several bestselling novels including Fire Flight, Skyhook, Turbulence, and Orbit. Two of his novels, Pandora’s Clock and Medusa’s Child, have been made into highly successful television miniseries. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Nance is a decorated pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield. He lives in Washington State.

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.

James Holland, former U.S. fighter pilot, now flying this commercial Boeing 747, isn't ready to die. They say he can't land his plane. They say he's a threat to the whole world. They're ready to blast him out of the sky.

Captain Holland may be on a collision course with doom-but they're going to have to catch him first. He's determined to take whatever risks he must to outfly them. Outsmart them. And beat...Pandora's Clock.

Publishers 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.)