BLACK SUNDAY

by Thomas Harris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 3, 1974

Not just a solitary psychotic Super Bowl sniper like La Fountaine's Two-Minute Warning (KR, p. 1120), but rather a Black September plot to exterminate 80,000 American football fans including a newly elected President. The action spans the globe -- from Beirut to Palm Beach to New Orleans -- as the architects of the massacre at Munich's Olympic Village join forces with a deranged, bitter ex-Navy pilot to retaliate for U.S. aid to Israel. Michael Lander, a compliant POW for six years in Vietnam, has become ""a splendid machine with a homicidal child at the controls"" after losing both his wife and his navy blue. It's his brainchild to fly a blimp over a packed Tulane Stadium and detonate a half ton of plastique, shooting off an average of 3.5 .177 caliber rifle darts per spectator. Once the plan is approved by Al Fatah guerrilla brass, the volatile pilot is kept tranquilized and soothed by Lebanese superagent Dahlia Iyad. Meanwhile, Major David Kabakov of the Israeli Secret Service manages to sniff out what's underfoot overhead despite narrow escapes from the terrorists and minimal assistance from the disbelieving FBI. Lander comes down with pneumonia. . .a condemned Libyan pilot is rushed in. . .and there's a shattering climax. Fast-paced, all-too-realistic -- it makes Rosebud look like kid stuff -- a likely sesame bread-winner.

Pub Date: Jan. 3, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION