Shattered Bone

We learned from a recent John Travolta movie that ""broken arrow"" is the military code for a stolen nuclear missile. Now we discover, in this sputtering first thriller by U.S. Air Force Major Stewart, that ""shattered bone"" is code for ""the theft, hijacking or unauthorized flight of a B1-B bomber loaded with nuclear weapons."" Stewart (who set world time, distance and speed records for B-1s in 1995) writes about flying with grace and power, but his prose stalls when it comes to character and plot. Battling the imperialist plans of a new Russian premier, Ukrainian leaders deploy one of their deepest moles, 29-year-old U.S. Air Force Captain Richard Ammon. The secret agent disappears after an apparent mid-air explosion, then resurfaces in Ukraine, where he is recruited to steal a B1-B and use it to destroy Russia's still-active missile sites. Feeling some (justified) distrust of Ammon, the Ukrainians take his American wife hostage--soon Ammon finds himself fighting to save her from her captors and the U.S. from nuclear war. A more sophisticated, experienced writer might have pulled off such a doozy of a setup; regrettably, despite wonderful airborne action scenes, Stewart's albatross of a narrative loses all its strength as soon as it touches the ground. (Oct.)