Book Description:
A former Air Force investigator comes out of retirement to find a killer, only to discover a massive government cover up.<br><br>Retired Air Force investigator Martin Collins lives a quiet life in rural Virginia, working as a local chief of police and consulting on military homicides. When he's called in to assist on a grisly triple murder, nothing can prepare him for the crime scene: Colonel Margaret Wildman and her two young children, their throats slashed, left to die in pools of their own blood. <br><br>At first, there seems to be no motive for the murders. But as Collins digs through an increasingly puzzling maze of clues, he reveals a secret that leads to the highest levels of the government and the military. Buried files reveal a link between Colonel Wildman and series of fatal airline crashes; political pressure to keep a secret grows, as does the body count. Collins finds his own life jeopardized as he closes in on the truth, culminating in a shocking confrontation on the floors of Congress. /Content /EditorialReview EditorialReview Source Amazon.com Review /Source Content A former pilot who knows his way around the corridors of power on Capitol Hill as well as the Pentagon, Patrick Davis spins a believable yarn about the murder of an Air Force safety officer just before she was about to blow the whistle on a fatal defect in a popular airplane. Originally built for the Air Force, the G 626 accounts for nearly a quarter of the world's passenger fleet, but Colonel Margaret Wildman's evidence would have grounded it and destroyed a billion dollar merger between Boeing and Global, the flawed plane's manufacturer. Martin Collins, a retired Air Force investigator who consults on military homicides, doesn't want to believe his service was involved in the death of the colonel and her two young children, but everything points to Wildman's immediate superior, Marcus Holland, who may have been acting on orders from higher up in the chain of command.<p> With a young special investigator who's got her own score to settle with Holland, and Simon Santos, an enigmatic detective whose wealth gives him entr e to the highest levels of military and political influence, Martin finds himself in a world of deals and deal makers even Simon can't access. Davis's skillful pacing drives the narrative to a surprising and explosive denouement, but long before that his complex and well developed protagonists engage the reader's interest and empathy. Simon's past holds a secret that's the clue to his determination to solve this cloudy and complicated case, and Martin is still grieving his dead wife and trying to find his way as a single parent. <I>The Colonel</I> is a strong, muscular thriller that confirms Davis's promise as a writer to watch. <I> Jane Adams</I>
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