Osgood, Charles Grosvenor:Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During World War II
- Taschenbuch 2005, ISBN: 9780786888351
Pan Books. Good. 111 x 178 x 30mm. Paperback. 1998. 576 pages. <br>For thirty-year-old captain Scott McKay, the trans port run from Miami to Denver will give him the money he desper… Mehr…
Pan Books. Good. 111 x 178 x 30mm. Paperback. 1998. 576 pages. <br>For thirty-year-old captain Scott McKay, the trans port run from Miami to Denver will give him the money he desperat ely needs to keep his fledgling air cargo company flying. When a mysterious crate is discovered on his plane, however, McKay is or dered to abandon his present course and fly the crate and its own er, Vivian Henry, to Washington, D.C., before going to Denver. Mc Kay takes the forced detour in stride - until a strange noise com es from deep inside the crate. It is the voice of Vivian's husban d, Dr. Rogers Henry, warning that the shipment they are carrying is actually a fully armed Medusa device, a thermonuclear bomb tha t can destroy every computer chip over an entire continent, and b last the Silicon Age back to the Stone Age. And it is set to go o ff within hours. As panic spreads from the small community of n uclear scientists who used to work for Dr. Rogers Henry to the Wh ite House and eventually to the general public, a group of rogue military officers conspires to disobey the President's orders and secure the technology of the Medusa device, whatever the cost. W ill Captain McKay and his crew trust their own instincts to dispo se of the bomb, or will they let a misguided government dictate t heir actions? Editorial Reviews Review If you miss t he great airborne adventures of writers like the late Ernest K. G ann, John Nance might help take up some of the slack. His Pandora 's Clock--it became a TV movie--featured a nasty virus rampant at 35,000 feet. His latest has the widow of a world-class scientist trying to deliver to the Pentagon an invention that could shut d own computers everywhere, thus ending civilization (and online bo okselling) as we know it. Lots of hairy, if somewhat implausible, action--sure to be exploited in another TV movie. --This text re fers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Fr om School Library Journal YA?From the intriguing jacket cover to the final page, suspense abounds in this thrilling novel. When Sc ott McKay, captain of his private cargo plane, takes on two passe ngers and their cargo crates, he and his crew discover that they are in for the flight of their lives. While over Washington, DC, a strange noise comes from deep inside the crate owned by Vivian Henry. It is the voice of her husband, a nuclear scientist who wa s believed dead. The people onboard are informed that the shipmen t that they are carrying is a fully armed Medusa device, a thermo nuclear bomb that will not only kill millions of people, but can also destroy every computer chip on the continent, blasting the c ountry back into the Stone Age. It is set to go off within hours. Panic erupts in the world of nuclear scientists who used to work for Dr. Henry, for they realize that this threat is a real possi bility. Fear spreads through the White House and the general publ ic, as a group of rogue military officers conspire to secure the bomb at any cost. Captain McKay and his crew soon discover that t hey are being deceived, and that everyone's life is in danger. Mi strust, deceit, and spine-chilling action flow from every page of this story.?Anita Short, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From K irkus Reviews Retired airline and Air Force pilot Nance improves steadily, this time borrowing from his own plot for Pandora's Clo ck (1995) but leaving out the romance. Former Navy pilot Scott Mc Kay has started up his own airline for hauling air freight. Thing s are going well--until he discovers while in flight that a crate he's carrying holds an armed 20-megaton hydrogen bomb hitched to a deadly new device that will send out an electromagnetic shock wave. The wave's superpulse will turn every computer chip in the US into stone. Planes now aloft will be helpless, and the entire financial and banking system will collapse, bringing on worldwide chaos. All defense systems as well will destruct--and as many as a million people may die when the bomb goes off with the force o f a hundred Hiroshimas. McKay discovers this horror while circlin g Washington, D.C., awaiting landing instructions. Will D.C. be w iped out and uninhabitable for a thousand years? McKay has two cr ew members on board and two passengers. One is Vivian Henry, whos e late husband, a disgruntled defense physicist, created the bomb and sealed it into a steel case armed with sensors that will set it off should its case be tampered with. Simultaneously, the wor st hurricane in recorded history is chewing up the East Coast lik e a titanic lawnmower. The other passenger is Doctor Linda McCoy, a hugely intelligent meteorologist just back from Antarctica and riding herd on some secret instruments of her own in the hold. M eanwhile, the FBI, the Air Force, defense experts, and the Presid ent try to get McKay to land so that bomb experts can dismantle t he ticking bomb. McKay refuses- -the bomb is beyond dismantling-- and heads out to sea into the storm. Then things get worse . . . . Nothing new, maybe, but a thriller that grips and absolutely do esn't let go. (First printing of 100,000) -- Copyright ?1996, Kir kus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal Even from the grave, nuclear physicist Rogers Henry is d etermined to castigate the wife who left him and the nation that devalued his services. Two years after her ex-husband's death, Vi vian Henry agrees to accompany his lifelong project to the Pentag on. She doesn't know that what she is transporting is a thermonuc lear bomb that, upon detonation, will kill millions and immobiliz e U.S. computer, telecommunication, financial, and transportation systems. While airborne, the ex-navy pilot at the controls and t he hapless passengers discover the bomb when it diabolically info rms them that it will explode in three and a half hours. Nance (P andora's Clock, Doubleday, 1995) weaves a tight narrative and eff ectively builds the suspense. An old-fashioned page-turner recomm ended for public-library fiction collections. -?Maria A. Perez-St able, Western Michigan Univ. Libs., Kalamazoo Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist Nance's bes t-selling thriller, Pandora's Clock , which concerned an airline passenger afflicted with a deadly virus, recently aired as a tele vision miniseries. Nance, an experienced air-force and commercial pilot as well as a broadcast journalist (including serving as av iation consultant for ABC News), brings his aviation expertise on ce more to bear on another terrifying fictional work that could h ave been taken from today's headlines. For his livelihood, pilot and small businessman Scott McKay leases a converted Boeing 727 a nd ferries cargo across the country, much like a truck driver. On one particular flight, however, he comes to realize that his car go hold contains a thermonuclear bomb: a modern instrument of des truction dubbed the Medusa device and capable of an incredible ac t of terrorism--destroying every computer chip within a very wide radius. The effort to incapacitate the bomb before it can detona te is the warp and woof of an exciting plot that offers hours of pure diversion. Brad Hooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review So compelling it's tough to look away. --People magazine Master of aviation suspen se John J. Nance produces another high-flying thriller....BRILLIA NT...He moves the action effortlessly from place to place, buildi ng the tension and heightening the drama...NANCE DELIVERS PLENTY OF PUNCH. --The Orange County Register This book's more addictiv e than morphine, a proverbial page-turner. --Dallas Morning News --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of t his title. From the Publisher A new novel of airborne suspense b y the bestselling author of Pandora's Clock! Praise for John J. Nance's Books: Nance combines exquisite suspense and cardiac-arr est action to create the ultimate flying adventure. If you read t his on an airliner, you're a lot braver than I am. --Stephen Coon ts, author of Final Flight and The Minotaur Pandora's Clock will do for planes what the movie Speed did for buses. John Nance's r iveting thriller is a fast, fun read that never lets up. --Philli p Margolin, author of Gone, But Not Forgotten and The Burning Man Fasten your seat belts! John Nance turns air disaster into a gr ipping investigative novel. His professional skills as both pilot and writer combine to make Final Approach a compelling and all-t oo-realistic story. --James Michener --This text refers to an o ut of print or unavailable edition of this title. From the Insid e Flap Everything in America is about to stop... 10,000 feet over Washington, D.C.! With the same breathtaking heroics that broug ht his bestselling Pandora's Clock international acclaim, John J. Nance once again spins today's headlines--this time about the th reat of nuclear terrorism--into an all-too-realistic story of hig h-flying suspense. For thirty-year-old captain Scott McKay, the transport run from Miami to Denver will give him the money he de sperately needs to keep his fledgling air cargo company flying. W hen a mysterious crate is discovered on his plane, however, McKay is ordered to abandon his present course and fly the crate and i ts owner, Vivian Henry, to Washington, D.C., before going to Denv er. McKay takes the forced detour in stride--until a strange nois e comes from deep inside the crate. It is the voice of Vivian's h usband, Dr. Rogers Henry, warning that the shipment they are carr ying is actually a fully armed Medusa device, a thermonuclear bom b that can destroy every computer chip over an entire continent, and blast the Silicon Age back to the Stone Age. And it is set to go off within hours. As panic spreads from the small community of nuclear scientists who used to work for Dr. Rogers Henry to t he White House and eventually to the general public, a group of r ogue military officers conspires to disobey the President's order s and secure the technology of the Medusa device, whatever the co st. Will Captain McKay and his crew trust their own instincts to dispose of the bomb, or will they let a misguided government dict ate their actions? Using his inside knowledge of the airline in dustry, as well as his expertise as a pilot, John J. Nance has on ce again turned our worst fears into a terrifyingly realistic sto ry. Medusa's Child will take readers into the center of a spine-t ingling crisis. --This text refers to an out of print or unavaila ble edition of this title. About the Author John J. Nance, aviat ion analyst for ABC News and a familiar face on Good Morning Amer ica, is the author of several bestselling novels including Fire F light, Skyhook, Turbulence, and Orbit. Two of his novels, Pandora 's Clock and Medusa's Child, have been made into highly successfu l television miniseries. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air For ce Reserve, Nance is a decorated pilot veteran of Vietnam and Ope rations Desert Storm/Desert Shield. He lives in Washington State. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Excerpt. ? Reprinted by permission. All rights reser ved. IN FLIGHT--SCOTAIR 50--4:05 P.M. EDT The voice of the Washi ngton Approach controller was terse. ScotAir Fifty, I've been ha nded a telephone number in Miami you're to call immediately. Do y ou have a phone aboard? Scott felt off balance. He'd never heard an air traffic controller order a pilot to make an airborne call . He wished Doc was back in the cockpit. Scott punched the trans mit button. Ah, roger, ScotAir Fifty does have a telephone. Who's requesting the call? I don't know, ScotAir, the controller bega n, ...but you need to call this number immediately. I'm told it's an emergency. The controller relayed the number and Scott punch ed it into the Flitephone handset, his mind whirling through a va riety of apocalyptic possibilities as a man answered on the other end, listened to the name ScotAir, and identified himself as an FBI agent. Scott felt himself shudder within. We've been trying to find you, ScotAir. You were in Miami this morning at the same time some undocumented hazardous material was shipped out. We thi nk that material may be on board your aircraft. The memory of Li nda McCoy's pushiness in getting her two pallets aboard suddenly flooded Scott's mind, almost blocking the agent's words. They had n't really verified her identity, had they? They hadn't even insp ected her pallets, once he'd agreed to take them. We need you to land immediately, the agent said. The visual memory of Mrs. Hen ry's single pallet also crossed his mind. He knew even less about her. Scott realized the agent was still talking, and he wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry, say again. There was a pause in Mi ami. I said, we'll have the appropriate people ready to meet you to examine what you've got on board. You haven't unloaded anythin g since you left Miami, have you? Suddenly, for some reason, he felt guilty. All they'd done wrong was load someone else's pallet , and that was an innocent mistake. Yet the fact that an FBI agen t was asking him questions at all was vaguely terrifying. No, si r, Scott answered, It's all still aboard, but I need to know, are we in any danger, if what you're looking for is really here? Si lence. Sir? Did you hear me? He could hear the phone being shif ted from one hand to another in Miami, and at last the FBI agent' s voice returned. Ah, Captain, I doubt you're in any immediate da nger, but I can't say for certain. If the...items...we're looking for are on board your airplane, it depends on how well they're, ah, packaged. More links and connections raced through his head, none of them comforting. Miami...drug dealers...drug-making equ ipment...hazardous, carcinogenic chemicals...what if we're carryi ng illegal drugs... Scott heard his own voice as if it were dise mbodied. Okay. Where do you want us to land? We're waiting to get into National, but right now it's closed. There was a worrisome hesitation on the other end. Scott could hear voices before the agent spoke into the handset again. Okay, stay in your holding p attern. What phone are you on? Scott passed the number of the ai rcraft's Flitephone. Keep the li, Pan Books, 1998, 2.5, New York: Hyperion Books, 2005. Paperback. As New/No Jacket. Trade Paperback AS NEW. Set in 1942 when America is reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec 11, 1941, nine-year-old Charlie Osgood Wood plants victory gardens and collects scrap metal for the war efforts, as well as delivering newspapers, going to baseball games, and goofing around with his younger sister. This is a funny and nostalgic look at a slice of American life from the perspective of a child far away from the fighting. but also conscious of the war and somewhat of some of its effects on people at home. 139 pages. 8 x 5.5 inches. 2005, Hyperion Books, New York, USA, Hyperion Books, 2005, 5<