The Passenger Book

Colonel John Quinn was a young, ambitious Air Force pilot who loved to fly - until an Iraqi missile nearly ended his career, and his life. Three surgeries and four years later, Quinn is functional, but not good enough to fly. Assigned to the Pentagon, he's prepared to spend the rest of his career in a series of boring staff jobs. Then a military Lear jet crashes shortly after takeoff in the rural farmlands outside Washington, and Quinn is called to lead the biggest investigation of his life.

With this crash there are no survivors - a fact that is particularly sensitive in the White House, as the jet carried just one passenger; the President's brother. The crash scene offers little in the way of clues, and while the White House is pushing pilot error as the cause of the accident, Quinn is uncertain. Too many Washington insiders, including Quinn's former wife, a Ph.D. with the National Transportation Safety Board, seem to have a stake in the outcome of the investigation. Too many dodge the hard questions - or turn up dead. Filled with great characters and told with pulsing narrative drive, The Passenger is further proof that, as W.E.B. Griffin says, "Patrick Davis is the real thing."

Publishers Weekly

Davis's sturdy, adrenaline-charged political techno-thriller sets a down-to-earth air force colonel against a deadly conspiracy involving formidable players in the White House and military. Medal of Honor-winner John Quinn is marking time at the Pentagon in a boring staff job, unhappy that injuries incurred in a mission over Iraq prevent him from flying again. Quinn is skeptical when his boss, scornful Major General Maxwell Cramer, suddenly gives him an auspicious assignment: heading the investigation of an air force Learjet crash in which the crew and the lone passenger, the president's half-brother, perished. Quinn picks outspoken fellow pilot Ted Chen--a highly competent but unpopular critic of the bureaucratic system--to assist him. Mistrust escalates when Quinn learns the White House has--against regulations--assigned Quinn's ambitious, opportunistic ex-wife, Jennifer Johnson, as a civilian observer on the case. Then Johnson is joined by the equally power-hungry White House Chief of Staff McKenzie, and soon the investigation is out of Quinn's control. Crafty Johnson leaks ugly rumors to the media, but before Quinn can unravel Johnson's involvement in the insider intrigue, other complications shed light on the situation. A female photography student who may have been a witness to the plane crash is missing; the daughter of an African-American former governor framed in a sex scandal raises questions about videotaped evidence of a murder coverup. Covert agents abound and bullets fly as Quinn and Chen fight for justice. Fast moving, atmospheric and authentically detailed, this gripping second novel (after The General) firmly establishes Davis--an ex-air force pilot with Pentagon experience--as a writer with a knack for white-knuckled suspense. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.