cover image Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings

Night Siege: The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings

J. Allen Hynek. Ballantine Books, $15 (236pp) ISBN 978-0-345-34213-3

The ""Westchester Boomerang'' was a UFO reported by hundreds of people in New York State and Connecticut between 1983 and 1986 and described by most witnesses as a hovering, immense V-shaped series of flashing lights connected by a dark structure. UFO investigators Imbrogno (Crosswalks Across the Universe) and Pratt write in detail about the ``close encounters'' of some 900 people who filled out ``witness forms.'' (Famed UFO author Hynek died in 1986, ``as the book was being written,'' but the authors maintain that he participated in the investigation and include the transcript of a Hynek interview with a witness.) They note a ``feeling'' common to the witnesses: ``They felt as if the object or whatever intelligence that was behind it was trying to communicate with them in some way.'' After a two-year analysis, the authors conclude that there is ``no conventional explanation for the Hudson Valley UFO.'' The illustrations (not seen by PW) include photos, drawings and sequential frames from a videotape of the lights. (October)