Within the Enemy's Lines Book

If you need a bit of book adrenaline to start the new year, this will provide the adrenaline and more. But don't reserve it to the beginning of a year. Whenever you discover this review is the right time to read this.

It starts as a routine flight for Craig Dayton, an American pilot employed by a European airline. His copilot is a Brit, and the two work well together. It's just another day for the two until they prepare to land in Athens, Greece and learn that a well-beloved former American president is on their flight. Upon its arrival in Greece, Greek law-enforcement authorities seek to detain the plane. The Peruvians have sworn out a warrant for the former president's arrest. They insist the American president authorized a CIA raid on a manufacturing plant that ended in the brutal death and torture of plant workers and Peruvian civilians.

Captain Dayton determines that no one is going to arrest his former commander in chief while he oversees the plane, so he engages in a healthy amount of derring-do and backs the plane away from the gate without authorization and flings it onto an empty runway where it takes it airborne en route to another country, perhaps one that won't arrest the ex-President.

The suspense grows as Captain Dayton realizes that every country in which he wants to land is a signatory to a treaty that allows Peru to arrest and humiliate the former president. The Peruvians have a world-famous barrister with a specialty in international law fighting for them. The former president hires Jay Reinhart, a once-suspended lawyer and professor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie to handle his case.

In desperation, Dayton brings the plane down in Sicily, hoping Italian authorities will let it fly on to London after refueling. The former president and his lawyer think he has the best chance at attaining freedom if he lands in London.

This is an adrenaline-soaked encounter with aviation and international law, and you'll learn a great deal about both if you read this. In 2021, we are familiar with the concept of deep fakes. That wasn't the case in 2001 when the author wrote this. It's amazing how prescient the author is. You'll be on the edge of your chair for numerous reasons with this book. Some of them are related to international law and the long odds the former president faces. Others focus on basic nail-biting things like physics and fuel. Regardless of which aspect of this you focus on, you'll likely experience heart-rate increases.