Wraith

Hannibal, a former air force officer, offers an insider’s view into some of the U.S. Air Force’s most intriguing weapons systems in his promising first novel, a post-9/11 thriller. Capt. Michael “Victor” Baron, a pilot in an A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” squadron, has long yearned to transfer to the ultrasecret Stealth bomber program. When the opportunity finally arrives, Victor is surprised to find that he’s been assigned to a site so secret that even Area 51 personnel aren’t cleared for it. Victor’s mission, using a new Stealth reconnaissance platform, is to kill a top al-Qaeda terrorist before the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. When Murphy’s Law raises its ugly head, the hunter becomes the hunted. Hannibal demonstrates that high-tech weapons are only tools, and that it’s the people doing the fighting who win the day. That parts of the book read like a field manual will please military fiction fans. (June)