Hellhound

Roberts ( Walking Dead ) and Appel ( Vengeance Valley ) make a good team and deliver an imaginative novel of clear, direct military suspense, although the internal logic of their plot too often relies on coincidence to fully convince. When a team of Iraqi and Palestinian terrorists steal the Hellhound, a high-powered attack helicopter being tested by the Russians at a secret airbase in Libya, the responsibility for its recovery falls to Russian colonel Sergei Valentin. Based on a cryptic remark by Libya's leader Qaddafi, whom Valentin concludes must know something about the thieves, the Russian's search takes him to an address in gang-controlled East L.A., where he teams up with Jack Walker, a temporarily idled LAPD helicopter cop. Meanwhile, the Arab terrorists prepare to use the Hellhound to avenge Saddam Hussein by attacking a nuclear power plant in Southern California, where former President Reagan is giving a speech. Valentin and Walker secure a Cobra helicopter of their own and take on the Hellhound in a daring seaside rendition of Duelling Helicopters in the rousing climax. (June)