Book Review: Coyote Bird

Reviewed By: David Ball

Coyote Bird     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jim DeFelice
Class/Genre:   Military   Mystery   Techno Thriller
St. Martins, 1992, 282 pp.

A pilot of the SR-91 Mercury (successor to the SR-71) has his engines quit in flight and has to land in Italy, leading to the super-secret plane becoming fodder for the press. This could normally be a career ender, but fortunately, the orders are already in the pipeline to assign him to be the replacement test pilot for an even more secret super plane, the Coyote.

A renegade faction in Japan wants to see their country become a superpower. They’re developing their own super plane and they’re willing to start a war with the US to further their aims. The team developing the computer support for Coyote is developing computer intelligence and one of them sees the Coyote as just a means to further that development. An FBI agent thinks the emergency with the SR-91 and the crash of a B-2 a week earlier are related and talks the powers that be into letting him go to the Coyote base to investigate. Meanwhile, the renegade Japanese shoot down an Air Force reconnaissance plane and another SR-91.

That’s just the setup for the story. The US has to do something about the renegade Japanese. The enemy super plane has to be dealt with and there’s a traitor to find. This book has several subplots and deals with all of them very well. There’s a lot of action, a mystery to solve, and even a bit of romance. The characters are very believable. The computer known as “The System” is a character as well. I found this book at the library and I'm very glad I did. DeFelice has done an excellent job. I’m going to be looking for some of his other works to read.

David Ball

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, David Ball