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FBI agent Cameron Daggett has for years been on the trail of an international triggerman responsible for planting at least two nearly undetectable explosive devices on airplanes. When a strange murder takes place in a Seattle aircraft training installation, Daggett suspects that his nemesis is involved. The man who was murdered was a specialist in training pilots to fly the Duhning 959-600 ― a new breed of ultra-sophisticated aircraft ― and he was killed in a Duhning flight simulator. Was the killer trying to be taught to pilot one of these super jets? How is this connected to Daggett's recent discovery of sophisticated altitude detonators? Is Anthony Kort ― Daggett's prey ― about to strike again? Using the most intricate and complex forensic techniques, the aerodynamic and technical principles that make monster jets stay aloft, and sheer cop's reasoning ― Daggett picks up Kort's trail. He is joined by forensic experts, aerodynamic engineers, and criminal psychologists ― but it comes down to Daggett and Daggett alone to see the pattern in the seemingly endless technical detail, and stop a tragedy before it takes place. But Kort is smart, and driven by a motivation that Daggett cannot possibly understand. And when Daggett gets close, Kort makes it personal. Hard Fall is a breathlessly paced thriller, an intellectual and technical game of cat and mouse, and a modern classic of suspense fiction. ** ### From Publishers Weekly Good background detail about terrorism gives Pearson's ( Probable Cause ) new thriller an edge, as he juggles dramatic forensic revelations with taut, sometimes melodramatic personal relationships. Pearson pits FBI agent Cameron Daggett, obsessed with capturing the terrorist responsible for the Lockerbie-style plane bombing that killed his parents and paralyzed his son, against German terrorist Anthony Kort, a member of the radical environmental vigilante group Der Grund. Kort plots to kill the CEO of companies dealing with EisherWorks, a German firm implicated in a toxic waste disaster that led to the death of his wife and infant. Daggett's nose for scientific evidence connects the murder of a flight instructor at Seattle Duhning Aircraft with the capture of a high-ranking member of Der Grund in Washington, D.C. The trail heats up in L.A. with the explosion and crash ("hard fall") of a plane carrying hazardous chemicals. Daggett and sexy explosives expert Lynn Greene track Kort and his right-hand woman Monique to D.C., where remnants in the wreckage suggest that they plan to blow up a second plane--very soon. Daggett's loved ones become pawns in a race to the photo-finish showdown at National Airport. The male-bonding antics hover around frat-house level, and Pearson freely plays loose with standard FBI procedures, but all in all this is an entertaining read. Major ad/promo; Reader's Digest Condensed Book; BOMC selection. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. ### From Kirkus Reviews Coming back strong from last year's ragged Probable Cause, Pearson turns in a tale of international terrorism that offers the sort of breakneck action, mature characterization, and tight forensic detail that made Undercurrents (1988) a police-procedural classic. The story opens with a literal bang as hero Cameron Daggett's FBI superior opens a booby-trapped suitcase and blows himself and Daggett's chief link to German radical environmental-terrorist Anthony Kort to kingdom come. The foul-up particularly irks Daggett because he's sure that Kort is responsible for the airplane bombing two years back that killed Daggett's parents and left his son Duncan a paraplegic. Daggett picks up Kort's trail again, though, after the German questions and kills a Seattle flight instructor and then somehow causes the crash of a plane taking off from L.A.'s LAX--a crash that, after complex forensic deduction, Daggett and his new sidekick, alluring FAA agent Lynn Greene, eventually pinpoint to poison gas released on the plane. Tracing Kort to D.C., Daggett and Greene realize that the German plans to down another plane. The pair give chase even as, right under Daggett's nose, Kort sets about seducing Daggett's live-in girlfriend, Caroline, who responds warmly in retaliation for Daggett's growing interest in Greene. Stealing Caroline's keys, Kort sneaks into Daggett's house, kidnaps crippled Duncan, and then fakes his own death in order to divert Daggett from discovering his goal: to crash a plane into the Pentagon, where five leading industrial polluters will be meeting. But as the minutes to the ``hard fall'' of the plane tick down, Kort still hasn't figured on Caroline's furious love for Duncan or on Daggett's rage for revenge at any cost.... Not as psychologically probing as Undercurrents, and hampered by the far-fetched premise, but, overall, a well-oiled thriller with every gear smoothly spinning at top speed. -- *Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.*