Drone Strike

Starred review from March 31, 2014
In this 15th Dreamland aviation thriller (after 2012’s Collateral Damage), Brown and DeFelice are at the top of their game. At the Dreamland base, a top-secret development area in the Nevada desert, Capt. Turk Mako, a test pilot in the U.S. Air Force, is working on a new drone project. Dubbed “Hydra,” these “nano-UAVs” (or unmanned aerial vehicles) are the size of a “cheap desk calculator” and shaped like “a cross between lawn darts and studies for a video game.” When the U.S. government decides that Iran’s nuclear efforts must be thwarted, Turk and his swarm of tiny drones are selected for a covert attack. Turk flies to Iran, links up with a Delta Force team, and destroys an underground nuclear facility. While the mission is an initial success, readers will know that Turk’s work is not finished so easily. The pages fly by as fast as the quicksilver drones while Turk faces one exciting, life-threatening complication after another. This can be read either as a standalone or a gateway to the rest of the Dreamland books. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.