Early ReviewersStorm Fredrickson

When I wrote the original version of Pilots Dawn in the last decade of the previous century, the world was a different place.

Three manufacturers of passenger aircraft existed in the United States. Boeing dominated the global market for airliners without serious competition. Airbus, whose share of sales fell short of 20%, was considered by many experts a challenger doomed to failure—if not an outright joke.

Politically, the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Cold War was over; the KGB had receded into history and expectations of a peaceful democratic Russia were the norm.

My fictional story about the sabotage of Boeing jets dealt with Western corporate and political machinations. Although a former KGB agent played a role in the success of a sinister operation, Russia was not involved. Indeed, such an attack at the time would have been unthinkable.

By 2024, East-West tensions reminiscent of the Cold War had resurfaced. It became not only imaginable but likely that Russia would attempt to further its expansionist activities in Ukraine and beyond by crippling the economy of her major rival. With PILOTS DAWN I had unwittingly provided enemies of the West with a roadmap for sabotaging American aircraft.

Plot of the original Pilots Dawn:

Walter Claussen, a KGB agent, becomes a capitalist after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He alone controls a weapon of mass destruction that he sells to the highest bidder. American passenger jets undergo a series of deadly mishaps that seem unrelated.

Frank Warner, meticulous head of air crash investigations at the NTSB, is unable to find the cause. The death toll mounts; the public experiences a collective fear of flying that threatens to cripple the nation.

Meantime in Paris Sophie Marx, retired Bureau Chief of the New York Times, begins work on a book about the life of France’s leading right-wing politician, Georges Michelet. At age 70, she is unable to do the legwork herself. Sophie solicits the help of her young American neighbor, the devastatingly handsome ne’er do well named Steven Le Conte, and sends him to the Riviera.

Steven is instructed to follow the guiding light of his “golden schwanz.” If he can manage to seduce Michelet’s daughter, Nicole, a sexy naïve teen vacationing on the Mediterranean, he might learn something beyond the reach of his boss.

Steven does not disappoint.

OPTIONED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

The year is 1942: Robert Mann, a brilliant young American physicist of German birth, joins Allied Intelligence. When the assassination of a top Nazi official presents OSS and MI-6 with a rare chance to penetrate the Third Reich, Robert volunteers.

His cover survives one nerve-racking encounter after another as he infiltrates Hitler’s atom bomb program. Then comes the ultimate test: entry into the home of Effi Zell—wife of Christoph Zell—the man Robert is impersonating. Tension builds toward a crescendo, then collapses as Christoph and Effi fall in love. Their torrid affair morphs into a man-woman resistance team. Again, the tension builds…

Robert and Effi perfect the art of deception on their perilous journey toward sabotage. Their goal: to deny Hitler the nuclear weapon that will decide the outcome of World War II. But a new threat of blown cover forces Robert to accept a pivotal role in the bomb’s final stage of development.

The result: an American spy creates the world’s first atomic weapon—for Germany. If Robert cannot “defuse” the bomb, he will have dealt London and Allied armies a fatal blow. He has decided that life is not worth living without Effi. But he cannot contrive an escape until he destroys the monster he has created. Robert faces dilemmas and challenges of historical proportion. Whether he succeeds is a question whose answer the reader will demand to know.

The East Wind is not an ordinary thriller. It is an original, unpredictable nail-biter reminiscent of vintage Le Carré.

The year is 1942: Robert Mann, a brilliant young American physicist of German birth, joins Allied Intelligence. When the assassination of a top Nazi official presents OSS and MI-6 with a rare chance to penetrate the Third Reich, Robert volunteers.

His cover survives one nerve-racking encounter after another as he infiltrates Hitler’s atom bomb program. Then comes the ultimate test: entry into the home of Effi Zell—wife of Christoph Zell—the man Robert is impersonating. Tension builds toward a crescendo, then collapses as Christoph and Effi fall in love. Their torrid affair morphs into a man-woman resistance team. Again, the tension builds…

Robert and Effi perfect the art of deception on their perilous journey toward sabotage. Their goal: to deny Hitler the nuclear weapon that will decide the outcome of World War II. But a new threat of blown cover forces Robert to accept a pivotal role in the bomb’s final stage of development.

The result: an American spy creates the world’s first atomic weapon—for Germany. If Robert cannot “defuse” the bomb, he will have dealt London and Allied armies a fatal blow. He has decided that life is not worth living without Effi. But he cannot contrive an escape until he destroys the monster he has created. Robert faces dilemmas and challenges of historical proportion. Whether he succeeds is a question whose answer the reader will demand to know.

The East Wind is not an ordinary thriller. It is an original, unpredictable nail-biter reminiscent of vintage Le Carré.