Winter Hawk

With this third Mitchell Gant adventure (successor to Firefox and Firefox Down Thomas firmly establishes himself in the forefront of today's adventure/thriller writers, even though his treatment of the genre's tried and true conventions is at times somewhat perfunctory and the book is too long. Gant is ordered to make a covert dash in and out of the Soviet Union to retrieve a spy with information that could stop the Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty about to be signed by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. He has 48 hours. The reader never doubts that Gant, America's finest pilot, will pull off his mission. The question is how, and at what price. As the clock ticks away, Gant flies a stolen MiL helicopter gunship, engages in dogfights and flees through the snowy border country, desperately trying to avoid crack spetsnaz units with orders to kill on sight. Fans of Firefox will recognize KGB officer Priabin, who is in trouble with Soviet military intelligence (GRU) and has sworn to kill Gant. When Gant and Priabin discover the GRU's devastating secret, Operation Lightning, they find themselves briefly on the same side, fighting not just for their lives, but to prevent World War III. 100,000 first printing; 100,000 ad/promo. (April 20)