KITTY HAWK

In the third book of a spy-and-terrorist–jammed series, breathless pacing helps to minimize several flaws. 

The president's daughter has been kidnapped by a secret group of terrorists. Hot on their trail are teenagers Q and his new stepsister, Angela, and a large enough gathering of other agents on the good-guy side to make a score card helpful for keeping track. Among them are Malak, Angela's mother, who has gone undercover and is pretending to be a member of the “ghost cell,” and Boone and his aged dog, Croc, who share some supernatural capabilities from an unexplained source. Complicating the chase down Interstate 95 is a Category 1 hurricane that seems to function merely as a device to provide bad weather for the first part of the chase, a suspicion underscored by the fact that it leaves nearly insignificant aftereffects just hours later, when most of the action occurs near where the hurricane made landfall. An awkwardly complex explanation of some of the relationships and past history of the series is offered, but it is confusing, making starting with the first book advisable. Mostly told in the wry first-person voice of Q, the narrative occasionally switches to third person from several other characters’ points of view, including that of John Masters, who was featured in another Smith series, Storm Runners.

Breathless and exciting, but no more substantial than smoke from a spy's revolver.