The Buffalo Pilot is an intriguing tale of corruption and crime, set in the backdrop of politics and Jet fuel.
The story revolves around a congressman being blackmailed by a crime mob to close down a US Air Force Reserve base. With a sinister right hand of the congressman planning devastating means of making sure the base gets closed down, Ford Stevens and Charlie Stevens get wrapped up in a dangerous plot. Ford Stevens is the commander of the air refueling squadron at the base, with his younger brother Charlie joining the squadron to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Both brothers have their arcs in the book as the plot thickens.
As mentioned above, the narrative also runs on jet fuel, and as such, there is a good amount of technical details and inner workings pertaining to jet planes and refueling measures, as well as interesting flight sequences that give an insight into the smooth but at times dangerous functioning of huge refueling aircraft.
I enjoyed the focus on gritty crime vibe with the integration of politics and gangs. The right hand man of the congressman trying to shut the air base down, is definitely a stand-out character in terms of disturbing behavior and scary personality. An absolutely evil antagonist who gives a great challenge to the Stevens brothers.
I became quickly acquainted with the characters and invested emotionally in them, despite jumping in directly into the third book. The characters are fun to read, especially the Stevens brothers. Each brother has his own charisma, with Ford being more comfortable in his role as the commander of the squadron and Charlie learning to adapt to the demanding environment of the air base as well as learning to live up to the reputation of being Ford’s younger brother.
I believe the interactions between characters could have been a bit more natural in terms of dialogues. The dialogues felt fine in writing but not when being imagined as spoken words in the narrative.
The narrative does pack a gut-wrenching ending that had me shook as I read through it. While it does not have a strong emphasis on action, the story is a crime thriller at heart and the constant plot twists and turns add to the captivating vibe emanating from the book.
All in all, The Buffalo Pilot is a great crime thriller with lots of interesting tidbits about jets, and I enjoyed reading through the book.
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