cover image Gunship

Gunship

Julian Jay Savarin. St. Martin's Press, $17.95 (296pp) ISBN 978-0-312-01439-1

Helicopter ace David Pross is pulled away from his family and two-copter charter service in Wales by the devious Fowler of the hush-hush ""Department.'' Russian ace Anakov, who's developed the most fearsome helicopter of the age, reportedly is coming to Britain to kill Pross and destroy England's own ultra-secret copter. Pross resists the Department's blandishments but is drawn irresistibly across Europe and to a showdown with Anakov in Tibet. Pross is also drawn to beautiful agent Sian Logan, who assumes a new identity in an attempt to ensnare Anakov. The perfidy of spymasters on both sides is clearly depicted, and up to almost the last minute it looks as if Logan is either a Red ``double'' or is being railroaded. Readers fond of technical detail about helicopters may enjoy Savarin's latest (after Wind Shear), but even they will be disappointed in the rather anticlimactic firefight in the Himalayas. Savarin's pacing only partially hides the plot's underlying absurdity. Logan's and Pross's coy attraction to each other is topped by Logan's attachment to her Ruger magnum pistol (``She reloaded. She felt complete once more.''), which may evoke Freudian giggles. (March)