Nightwatch (Miranda Chase #12) by M.L. Buchman
What's It About?
As the Arctic melts, the fabled Northwest and Northeast Passages are opening. But are they opening to war? With nations shifting to high alert, Miranda Chase lands once more in the midst of the fray — but first, she must fight battles of her own.Two Chinese container ships are attacked transiting the Northeast and Northwest Passages, while a passenger jet with three CIA operatives aboard makes an emergency landing in southern Quebec, with two of three agents dead. As international tensions flare, it is up to Miranda Chase and her crack NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) team to unravel a Machiavellian plot before they are the next ones targeted for destruction in Nightwatch, the twelfth novel in M.L. Buchman’s nail-biting series.
Just outside Montreal, Quebec, an Embraer 175 passenger jet lays half on the beach and half in the chilly waters of Lac Brome, as Miranda’s friends and NTSB teammates, Jeremy Trahan and Colonel Vicki “Taz” Cortez, arrive to investigate the cause of the aircraft’s sudden loss of power an hour into the flight. The only fatalities are two CIA agents and an unconscious Ernie Maxwell, the Middle East Desk Director.
At the same time, two Chinese container ships navigating through the melting icepack of the Arctic Circle are unaware of the silent and deadly threat observing them deep beneath the frigid waters. The Lucky Progress lives up to its name, a missile-nicked propeller blade its worst damage, while the Fortunate Progress blows sky high from a chain reaction instigated by submarine-launched Harpoon missiles.
Three Explosive Storylines Converge
Meanwhile, the world’s specialist in military air crashes, Miranda Chase, is pottering in her garden on tranquil Spieden Island off the coast of Washington, talking about children with her girlfriend of eighteen months, Andi Wu. Andi, an ex-Army Night Stalker helicopter pilot, desperately dreads the imminent visit of her high-powered attorney mother, Ching Hui Wu, and the judgment she expects for her life choices.
Miranda and Andi fly to Seattle to pick up Andi’s mother in Miranda’s Cessna fixed-wing aircraft. But upon final descent back onto the narrow Spieden Island of Miranda’s youth, a terrible sight greets them, and Andi must break Miranda (literally) from a state induced by her autism that threatens all their lives.
With these dramatic points plotted, Buchman charts a course for propulsive adventure as three storylines converge to explosive effect. Accompanied by his winsome techno-jargon and military acronym speak, Buchman fuses the personal and professional in the lives of Miranda and her team, which has grown successively since the first book in the series (Drone).
As Miranda’s dispersed team of experts work the problems on the ground and in the air (who fired upon the Chinese ships? How was the Embraer 175 involved and who sabotaged the saboteur?), the centerpiece action is aboard the awe-inspiring capabilities of the E-4B Nightwatch, a military command-and-control Boeing 747. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Drake Nason needs his best analyst aboard to find out why the Embraer 175 went down.
A Thrill Ride From Start to Finish
Teaming up with whip-smart E-4B Nightwatch flight security operator Staff Sergeant Tamisha Ward (a delightful character readers will want to see again), Miranda, Drake, Andi, Taz, Jeremy, as well as the villainous (yet reluctantly likable) CIA Director Clarissa Reese, must work past their differences and play to each other’s strengths to hunt down and eliminate a target no one could have expected.
Indeed, Buchman’s plot is impressive and plausible, revealing his deep knowledge of geopolitics and international relations. Fans can expect the same trademark humor and zippy, caustic dialogue between antagonists, and new readers will want to read the series from the beginning to appreciate previous storylines and the deep character history.
Expertly paced and a thrill ride from start to finish, Nightwatch is a revelation to readers new to the Miranda Chase series and another winning addition to fans’ Buchman bookshelf. This entry kicks the throttle into overdrive with a climactic and unforgettable showdown that defies gravity. Highly recommend.
About M.L. Buchman:
Bestselling author M.L. Buchman started the first of over 70 novels and 100 short stories (along with an ever-growing pile of audiobooks narrated by the author) while flying from South Korea to ride across the Australian Outback. All part of an around-the-world bicycle trip (a mid-life crisis on wheels) that ultimately launched his writing career. His true loves are military romantic suspense and political technothrillers; with contemporary romance, fantasy, and SF all vying for third place. M.L. has designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of airplanes, and consulted for the Fortune 100. He is constantly amazed at what can be done with a degree in geophysics.
