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Summary
Author Notes
Nelson DeMille was born in New York City on August 23, 1943. He attended Hofstra University for three years, then joined the Army and went to Officer Candidate School. He was commissioned a First Lieutenant and served in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader with the First Calvary Division. He received the Air Medal, Bronze Star, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry while in the service. He eventually returned to Hofstra University and received a degree in political science and history.
His first writings were NYPD detective novels, but his first major novel, By the Rivers of Babylon, was published in 1978. His other works include Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, Spencerville, Plum Island, The Lion's Game, Up Country, Night Fall, Wild Fire, and The Quest. His New York Times bestsellers include Radient Angel and The Cuban Affair.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Demille's latest is sure to be a #1 bestseller-but it's also sure to be controversial. The book is centered on an investigation of the July 1996 crash of flight TWA 800, "when... a big Boeing 747 bound for Paris with 230 passengers and crew on board, exploded off the Atlantic coast of Long Island, sending all 230 souls to their deaths." In July 2001, Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force detective John Corey, a brilliant, smart-ass detective last seen in Plum Island and The Lion's Game, accompanies his FBI agent wife, Kate Mayfield, to the fifth anniversary of the disaster. John, whose wife worked the crash in 1996, understands that Kate has brought him along because she doesn't buy the official finding of "mechanical failure" and wants him to mount his own investigation. There are 200 eyewitnesses who swear they saw a missile lift into the clear night sky and bring down the airplane, a charge dismissed by the CIA as an optical illusion. Though Corey is warned away from the investigation, like any good fictional detective, this only serves to spur him on. He uncovers evidence that a man and a woman, on the beach that fateful night videotaping their adulterous affair, inadvertently caught on tape the missile hitting the plane. The book is primarily about John tracking down the couple, but as the end nears, readers will begin to understand the perilous direction in which Demille is leading them. The pages will turn in a blur as a feeling of dread grows, until the end comes and one's worst fears are confirmed. Readers will think about this one for a long time. Agent, Nicholas Ellison. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Terrific dialogue punctuates DeMille's third John Corey outing (Plum Island, 1997; The Lion's Game, 2000). Former NYPD Homicide detective Corey, now with the Federal Antiterrorist Task Force (ATTF) in Manhattan, is one sarcastic wit. The opening chapter here hints at mere hackery, but when Corey enters as narrator, the style uncaps its fireworks. At nightfall in 1996, Jill Winslow and Bud Mitchell videotape their mutual adultery on a motel blanket on Long Island's Cupsogue Beach and settle into some real fun when Jill sees a streak of light rise off the horizon and rocket toward TWA Flight 800. As in real life, the plane explodes, killing all 230 aboard. And it's on videotape. Or is it? Five years later, ATTF closes the case, declaring it a mechanical malfunction, despite over two hundred witnesses having seen the rocket rise and strike the plane. Why has Washington released this bulloney? ATTF's Kate Mayfield, Corey's wife of a year's standing, takes him to a beach memorial service for the victims, then leads him to some expert eyewitnesses who differ with the CIA's animated film of the "malfunction." The ATTF bosses work conjointly with an NYPD task force and warn Kate and John to drop this case or be fired, although Kate worked it five years earlier, interviewing eyewitnesses. But Kate can't stop, and John, once loosed, brings his immense detective skills to undercutting the FBI and CIA version. This real-life tragedy hands DeMille perhaps his finest plot ever, one that involves real feeling, and will have you squirming and calling out at various dangers. And he gets around any risk of creating a sense of exploitation in the victims' survivors who might read this thriller by lifting the plot into the heavens of mystery, with a satisfying Ahhh! at an end that you'll foresee and still be surprised by. Ahhh! Now where's that videotape? Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In The Lion's Game (1999), DeMille left open the possibility for a sequel, and here it is. Former NYPD cop John Corey now works for the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, but, no, the story is not about our current war on terror--at least, not exactly. The book opens in the summer of 1986 with two seemingly innocent characters witnessing the real-life crash of TWA Flight 800 over Long Island Sound. Cut to the fifth anniversary of the crash, which finds John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, who was on the team that investigated Flight 800, still not convinced that mechanical failure caused the 747 to explode in the sky, especially given the fact that hundreds of witnesses saw a white streak of light ascending toward the aircraft prior to the crash. Could terrorism have played a role? Is there a government cover-up? The no-nonsense John doesn't usually buy conspiracy theories, but this time the facts drive him and his wife to unofficially reopen the case, much to the chagrin of some powerful people. By setting the story during the summer of 2001, before the events of 9/11 made us forget Flight 800, DeMille underscores both the many unanswered questions about multiple plots against the U.S and the turf wars that have resulted in miscues among the various intelligence agencies. A timely and intense thriller starring a thoroughly likable hero, whose final scene promises yet another return. --Mary Frances Wilkens Copyright 2004 Booklist
Library Journal Review
It's summer 2001, five years since TWA Flight 800 went down in the ocean under mysterious circumstances. The official explanation is mechanical failure, but John Corey and wife Kate Mayfield (last seen in The Lion's Game) suspect a cover-up involving a steamy videotape and a guided missile. Even though both Corey and Mayfield work for an antiterrorist task force made up of cops and CIA and FBI agents, there is resistance to their finding anything to contradict the official reports. As usual, DeMille spins a well-crafted, timely, and exciting tale. Corey is a cynical and sarcastic ex-cop who's been around the block at least once too often, while Mayfield is a straight-arrow FBI lawyer who wants desperately to do right for the dead of Flight 800. To do so, they must deal with sinister forces within their own government as they unknowingly count down to 9/11. Strongly recommended for most popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/04; see Q&A with DeMille on p. 70.]-Robert Conroy, Warren, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.