Skyjack

Starred review from February 19, 2018
Howe’s rip-roaring sequel to 2017’s The Freedom Broker finds kidnap and rescue expert Thea Paris escorting two orphaned brothers, 12-year-old Jabari and nine-year-old Ayan, from sub-Saharan Africa, where they witnessed their parents’ beheading by Boko Haram and were forced into becoming child soldiers before being rescued, to London, home of their new adoptive parents. En route, the chartered plane carrying Thea, the boys, and 12 other passengers is hijacked and lands in the Libyan Desert. Thea is tricked into leaving the plane, which takes off without her. Thea and her tactical team go into hyperdrive to negotiate the passengers’ return. Her old enemy, Don Prospero Salvatore, is behind the hijacking, demanding that she detain a truck filled with Syrian refugees bound for Budapest. Good thing Thea has serious skills in fighting, shooting, and flying a plane. The enthralling plot moves across Europe with lightning speed, linking a WWII legend with an underground militant group’s plan to release a deadly toxic substance. In-depth character studies match the high tension. With this nail-biter, Howe seals her place as a first-class purveyor of adventure stories showcasing strong women characters. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc.

March 15, 2018
This high-burn thriller launches from this premise: after WWII, the Allies embedded well-equipped military cells in European nations to detect and repel any sign of Soviet intrusion. The cells are long defunct now, but some of their weaponry is still about and of great interest to some unsavory people. Enter Thea Paris, whose job title is a sign of the times. She's a kidnap expert, heading an independent outfit called Quantum, which has scary commando resources if negotiations with kidnappers fail. Here she tangles with a Mafia don who will hold hostages to get that left-behind arsenal, along with a radical Islam group planning to murder infidels with poison gas. Howe is so committed to her story and skillful in its execution that the suspense scenes, especially when Paris' group attempts to close in on the terrorists amid a crowd of tourists, are difficult to turn away from. And when Paris has to single-handedly battle a hangarful of thugs, the action is so exhilarating that we wish the scene would go on longer. For action-hungry readers, this one's a must.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from March 15, 2018

In Thea Paris's latest adventure (after The Freedom Broker), the international kidnap expert is forced to use her skills to save the lives of fellow airline passengers. She is escorting two orphans from Africa to adoptive parents in London when the pilot locks the copilot out of the cockpit, and soon the plane is landing in the middle of the Libyan desert. Thea tries to negotiate, but the hijacker has a bigger plan in mind. He drops her at an abandoned hangar and takes off with the plane and the terrified passengers. Can Thea find a way to escape and then negotiate the successful release of everyone on board? While the main story line excels, a subplot involving a young teen with a horrible father adds further tension to the suspenseful narrative. VERDICT Howe, executive director of ThrillerFest, is a master storyteller, and even though this is her second novel, it demonstrates the talent of someone who has been crafting thrillers for decades. This works on several levels and will fuel interest in our heroine's further exploits. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/18.]--Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.