With Hostile Intent by Robert Gandt | LibraryThing

With Hostile Intent by Robert Gandt | LibraryThing:

OK, I admit it, I like airplanes and let's face it, fighter jets hold more than a little allure. So I like stories about fighter jocks, assuming they are reasonably well written, don't confuse they're and there, and have a plot that has some coherence. Gandt is a former Navy fighter jock, flying A-4s off a carrier and then for many years as a Pan Am pilot (he wrote an account of the rise and fall of Pan Am, Skygods.)

His fighter jock novels follow the career of Brick Maxwell (I didn't realize there was a sequence when I started this book so  I'm a bit out of order.)  In addition to Maxwell we have DeLancey, the hotshot squadron commander (a hotshot in his own mind and vindictive SOB); Claire, former GF of Maxwell, now a reporter looking for insider information; Tyrwhitt, Claire's estranged husband who write a column supportive of Saddam but who's really a CIA plant, and assorted other pilots.

There are constant political machinations among the squadron, petty jealousies, harassment of the female pilots, manipulations in return by the some of the women, and pilots with hangovers, problems at home, and many other distractions.  Makes you wonder if drones aren't such a bad idea.  I'm not such if it was the author's intent, but goodness, WW III could be just a hangover away.  I truly hope what DeLancey does is not representative of what Gandt experience during his time flying carrier jets.

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