Lightning

4.5stars-complex and detailed

4.5 stars-- LIGHTNING is the tenth instalment in ML Buchman’s contemporary, adult AMANDA CHASE, NTSB military, suspense, technothriller series focusing on NTSB investigator Miranda Chase and her team of former and current military members.

Told from third person perspective LIGHTNING follows Miranda Chase and her team as they are tasked with investigating three nearly simultaneous situations involving US military fighter jets: the first is the crash of a fully fuelled KC-46 in Alaska, a modified Boeing 767; the second involves the hijacking of, and the subsequent targeting and destruction of Washington DC’s Kimpton George Hotel which would ultimately kill Senator Hunter Ramson; and thirdly, the unexplained crash of a F-35C Lightning II jet, and resulting explosion of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft supercarrier, a ship on training maneuvers in the South China Seas. Miranda Chase’s NTSB team has been called in to investigate all three disasters but with the team spread so thin, Miranda, a savant on the autism spectrum scale, battles in the wake of unfamiliar people unaware of her idiosyncrasies and struggles with everyday activities. Adding to Miranda’s battle, is the reassignment of her ‘second in command’ Jeremy, a man who is ready to direct an investigation of his own.

Once again, we are up close and personal with Miranda Chase’s struggle to recognize other people’s emotions, sarcasm, and jokes. Miranda’s last relationship failed in the face of her inability to perceive and distinguish between acceptance and opposition but her new love interest has the competence and capability of keeping our heroine on an even pitch.

LIGHTNING is awash in complex and detailed military vernacular and language such that one needs a spreadsheet to understand the description and dynamics of the fighting machines, war birds, and embattled personnel. LIGHTNING is a story of power and destruction, betrayal and deception, family and friendships, acceptance and control.