The Killing Sky

by Robert Gandt

Fighter pilot Brick Maxwell, with the help of his Roadrunner squadron, launches a death strike on the enemy--a Palestinian splinter group--to make them pay for the death of his girlfriend during a hostage negotiation gone wrong. Original.

Genres: Military Fiction, Fiction

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[Fred Brotherly · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Killing Sky"" is the fifth book in Robert Gandt's great series of novels about Brick Maxwell, and it's one of the two best. (My other favorite is ""Acts of Vengeance"", the second book in the series.)

Brick Maxwell is a U.S. Navy pilot and squadron leader, flying an F/A-18 Super Hornet off the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, stationed in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. The story starts with a joint exercise with the Israeli Air Force ending with an American F/A-18 getting shot down for real!

What went wrong? Did the Israeli pilot really push the missile launch button instead of just announcing a simulated kill? And why does the female Israeli Mossad agent make a play for Brick Maxwell? Is she trying to get information out of him or does she have other motives?

This book contains the same three general plot elements as most of Robert Gandt's novels:

- exciting ""you're sitting in the cockpit"" descriptions of modern Navy flight operations, with dogfights, carrier-based landings and takeoffs, and push-button warfare with modern smart bombs and missiles.

- geopolitical machinations, this time involving high-level Americans and Israelis and Palestinians. And to keep the excitement up there are internal conflicts within each national group, including a really nasty American political envoy with presidential ambitions.

- romantic involvement for Brick, this time involving not just one but two women.

I liked this book a lot, despite the rather slow start. The suspense gets cranked up by the under-handed dealings going on between the politicians and the resulting armed conflicts between the Palestinians, the Israelis and the American forces. Is the United States really going to invade Palestine and engineer a democratic process, just like in Iraq? And who is really behind the decisions that are causing the continued escalation of hostilities?

One of my criticisms of Robert Gandt's novels is that the characters don't really come across as real people. This is still true in ""The Killing Sky"", but less so than in the first books in the series, another plus for this book.
The Killing Sky"" is the fifth book in Robert Gandt's great series of novels about Brick Maxwell, and it's one of the two best. (My other favorite is ""Acts of Vengeance"", the second book in the series.)"

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Naval aviation suspense - in the vein of Coonts, but better. Nothing particularly special, but a fun read.

[Wayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel got off to an extremely slow start. Chapters of boring nothingness. I found it to be styandard fare from Gandt, predictable outcomes if you have the patience.

[L_fortanet · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good novel...simple but a good novel if you like the aviation...Very good written by the great Robert Gandt.

[Jim A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Brick Maxwell novel. This one centered around the Israel-Palestine issue. Usual bad actors from all countries involved.