1787

The pseudonymous Bailey's debut reads more like a 1970s disaster film dressed up with superficial post-9/11 trappings than a serious effort to create suspense from the current realities of the terror threat. Hi-tech millionaire Matt Newton is on Anytime Airways flight number 1787 from New York's Kennedy Airport to Mexico when hijackers take control of the plane, killing an air marshal and getting access to the cockpit with liquid explosives concealed in a female terrorist's uterus. Newton and Anna Horowitz, a military historian, rally the passengers and manage to kill the bad guys (who conveniently fail to post a guard to keep an eye on the victims they had herded to the back of the plane), using beverage carts and pepper from condiment packages. But their triumph proves temporary, as no one has been left alive who can pilot the aircraft, and the government's fears that a rogue nuke may be onboard make the plane an active target by the military. The deus ex machina device at the end to avert global disaster is likely to disappoint readers hoping for some realism.