Seconds to Midnight: A Donovan Nash Novel

of Donlay’s disappointing seventh Donovan Nash novel (after 2016’s Pegasus Down), Donovan and his four-person crew, who are flying over northern Manitoba on a research mission in a Gulfstream jet, narrowly avoid colliding with a Boeing 737. The 737, evidently in distress, lands on a frozen lake; a lone woman escapes the aircraft before it breaks the ice and sinks. Donovan and crew land on the lake in their smaller plane and succeed in rescuing the woman, who cries before collapsing: “Don’t let anyone know about me. They’ll kill us all, even our families.” Donovan and his wife, Lauren, a Defense Intelligence Agency operative, join forces with various others to solve the mystery of the doomed 737—and the unidentified woman, who’s later abducted from a Minneapolis hospital while still unconscious. Donovan and his team are in constant danger from unknown assailants, but the plot loses momentum amid long passages of unnecessary exposition. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Associates. (Mar.)