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| MIRANDA CHASE |
Recurring Characters
| Miranda Chase | Autistic IIC, Investigator-in-Charge, for the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board). |
| Sam and Olivia Chase | Miranda's parents |
| Tanya "Tante" Daniels | Miranda's therapist, turned governess after the death of her parents |
| Holly Harper | Former Australian SASR operator. Specialist in structures and explosives. |
| Mike Munroe | Former con-man and FBI stooge. Specialist in human factors. |
| Jeremy Trahn | All around investigator. A young Miranda without the autism |
| Vicki "Taz the Taser" Cortez | US Air Force colonel. Specialist in operations and military planning. |
| Andrea "Andi" Wu | Former US Army 160th "Night Stalkers" helicopter pilot. Specialist in rotorcraft. |
| General Drake Nason | Former US Army 75th Rangers. Now 4-star general Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. |
| President Roy Cole | President of the USA. |
| General Elizabeth "Lizzy" Grey | Former US Air Force combat pilot. Director of the NRO, National Reconnaissance Office. Wife of General Drake Nason. |
| Clarissa Reese | Director of the CIA. |
Miranda's Recurring Places
Miranda's Personal Aircraft
 M20V Acclaim Ultra © Mike Burdett (Miranda's father's plane)
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 F86 Sabrejet © USAF (gift to Miranda in short story "Honor Flight")
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 Cessna Citation M2 © YSSY Guy (Long-term loan from Cessna for testing)
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 MD-902 Explorer © Fae (purchased for use by Andi Wu)
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 TWA 747 N993119 during better times © Fae
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 Reconstructed TWA 800 fuselage © NTSB
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Drone
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Chang Mui | Zuocheng's granddaughter | |
| Chen Mei-Li | high-end Chinese sex worker | |
| Terence Graham | NTSB Investigator-in-Charge, head of training | |
| General Oswald Harrington | commander of Groom Lake, NV | |
| Cal Jefferson | drone pilot and Remotes baseball player | |
| Sergeant Oscar Lamont | driver for General Nason | |
| General Liú Zuocheng | vice chairman of CMC, Central Military Commission | |
| Major Carl Maxwellton | drone pilot, Remotes baseball player | |
| General Fitzgerald Patrick | director of NRO, National Reconnaissance Office | |
| General Peng Yan | Chinese, head of Equipment Development Department | |
| Colonel Helen Thomas | Number Two in command, Groom Lake, NV | |
| Major Wang Fan | Chinses J-31 pilot | |
| Lt. Colonel Harvey Whitmore | drone pilot | |
| Clark Winston | Director of CIA | |
| General Zhang Ru | Wang Fan's wife's uncle | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Miranda has a new team foisted upon her. Have you ever had a similar experience? How did you make it work? What would you do the same and what do you wish you'd done differently? | ||
| 2. A common theme in Buchman's work are the circles of trust. How do you think of trust at the family, individual, team, friends, work, country, or societal level? | ||
| 3. Miranda is a very one-focus gal. If you were an autistic with a single, overarching Special Interest, what would it be? What would it be if time and money weren't an object? | ||
| 4. The pilots in Drone give their all for one great passion. What is there that you would give anything to have or do? Is there a way to start doing even a little of it now? | ||
| 5. What about the reading experience most matched your expectations? What matched the least? | ||
| 6. What about the characters most matched your expectations? When did they surprise you? | ||
| 7. If you were to cast these characters in a movie, who would play what parts? Use the form below to send your cast to M. L. and he'll send you his. | ||
Thunderbolt
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Lieutenant William 'Billy / Poet' Blake | Eglin AFB pilot (A-10) | |
| Colonel Arturo Campos | Commander of the 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB | |
| Jenny 'Daemon' Curtiss | Rouge hacker for hire | |
| Heidi 'Witchy Lady' Geller | Head of CIA Cyber Security department | |
| Sergeant Oscar Lamont | Nason's driver | |
| Senator Hunter Ramson | Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee | |
| Rose Ramson | Wife of Senator Ramson | |
| Harry 'Wizard Boy' Tallman | Head of CIA's Cyber Attack Division | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Hacking has become a fixture in our society. Where would you rate it on the spectrum of crimes? | ||
| 2. Are the final actions of "White Hat" hackers (Heidi and Harry) against a "Black Hat" hacker (Daemon) justified? | ||
| 3. What is the role of justice vs. vigilantism in our society? Is the latter ever justified? | ||
| 4. Jeremy feels terrible guilt (Buddhism's "Second Arrow") over something he almost did. Have you ever done anything that caused you to plunge in your own Second Arrow of guilt? If so, what have you found helps you remove that self-inflicted emotional pain? | ||
Condor
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Gregor 'Monster' Federov | Senior designer at the Progress Rocket Space Center | |
| Major Elayne Kasprak | Russian SVR / Zaslon agent-saboteur | |
| Diayu | General Zhang Ru's receptionist | |
| Tim & Tom | USAF 24 STS Air Combat Controllers | |
| Vesna | Waitress at Tantsy Bobor Club, companion of Grego Federov | |
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| Aircraft | ||
 AN-124 Condor (Greg Goebel) |
 AN-124 Condor loading DSRV (US Navy) |
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 C-5 Galaxy (Roland Balik) |
 C-5 Galaxy loading helo (USAF) |
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 Su-25UT (Su-28 trainer) (MSgt Dave Casey) |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Our nations spend billions, hundred of billions, on weapons of war (ships, jets, spy satellites, etc). Is it justified? Discuss how this massive escalation cycle might be mitigated. | ||
| 2. Elayne Kasprak takes drastic actions to protect Russian assets (the helicopter transport plane she destroys). Holly Harper takes equally drastic action to steal the Russian Persona satellite. Are both of them justified? Are either of them justified? | ||
| 3. Imagine that you are the Wright Brothers, who have just achieved the first airplane flight. Now imagine you are standing in this story's C-5 Galaxy transport jet, whose cargo bay is as long as your entire first flight. How do you think they would react? Awe, horror... | ||
| 4. What is something in your life that has affected you that way? | ||
| 5. Holly fights a physical battle. Have you ever been in one? What was most surprising about it? | ||
Ghostrider
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Technical Sergeant Rosa Cruz | Ghostrider laser operator | |
| Captain Ronny 'Gutz' Gutierrez | Copilot of AC-130J Ghostrider | |
| Master Sergeant Pierre 'Frenchie' Jones | Crew of AC-130J Ghostrider | |
| General Jorge Jesus 'JJ' Martinez | USAF Pentagon - Aircraft acquisitions | |
| Major Mark 'Tango' Torres | AC-130J Ghostrider pilot | |
| Jeffrey Vance | Brett's 9-year-old son | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. General Martinez and Taz declare a direct and personal war on drug lords. Is this the answer? If it was completely up to you, how would you run the "War on Drugs"? Militarize everything? Legalize everything? Unleash Special Operations in foreign countries? | ||
| 2. For Taz, all life is a battle to be fought. To Jeremy, it is all about cooperation and collaboration. What is your own place on that spectrum and how does it help/hurt you? | ||
| 3. Following orders of a superior officer can mean life or death in the military. General Elizabeth Gray chooses to forgive Rosa for actions Rosa knew were illegal but performed at the order of her commanding officer. Was this right? | ||
| 4. Jeremy draws a very specific moral line at what he will and will not do, even at the risk of his and Mike's life. What choice would you have made? What was a moral-based choice you made in your life and how did that change you? | ||
Raider
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Colonel Josh Abrams | Air Force Two commander | |
| General Ersin Firat | Turkish commander of hacker team | |
| General Arkin Kavanaugh | USAF weapons systems acquisition | |
| General Barry Sizemore | USAF weapons systems acquisition | |
| Colonel Stimson | Commander of the Night Stalkers 160th SOAR | |
| Major Jon Swift | USAF Accident Investigation Board investigator | |
| General Helen Thomas | Commander of NTTR | |
| Asli | Onur's sister, Metin's love interest | |
| Metin | Turkish Hacker | |
| Onur | Turkish Hacker, Metin's best friend | |
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 F-18E Strike Eagle (USN) |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Have you ever met someone with PTSD? Discuss what they were like, how they reacted? Were they changed if you knew them before and after? | ||
| 2. Do you have something that you react to, that you simply can't help? (Ex. When I was a kid, some "friends" sicced the Doberman on my. I love dogs, but I've been afraid of Dobbies ever since.) What are you doing to change that reaction? (I force myself to pet each Dobbie I meet, because it wasn't the dogs fault.) | ||
| 3. Holly completely mistakes Mike and Andi's relationship in the beginning, with amusing results. Have you ever been in a similar situation and were you able to laugh afterward? | ||
| 4. Asli gives Metin a simple guide that changes his life, "Would you be willing to tell me what you did if you were allowed to?" Another version of this is: "If was in the newspaper, would you be okay with that?" What guideposts do you use when weighing a questionable action in your mind? | ||
Chinook
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Chang Mui | Daughter of General Liu Zuocheng | |
| Mei-Li Chen | Former sex slave of General Zhang Ru | |
| General Liú Zuocheng | Co-vice-chairman CMC | |
| Captain Debbie Smithey | MH-47G Chinook pilot | |
| Staff Sergeant Bob Wang | Night Stalkers helicopter mechanic | |
| Wang Daiyu | General Zhang Ru's wife | |
| General Zhang Ru | Member of CMC | |
| Max | Wildfire hotshot sawyer, friend of Taz Cortez | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. China and the US are in a battle of wills (and hopefully that's all they're still in when you're reading this). How do you think Taiwan specifically and US-China relations will play out? How do you think they should play out? | ||
| 2. Have you ever served or even been to a military airshow? If so, tell others about it. What you saw, your impressions, how it altered your view of the military. | ||
| 3. General Zhang Ru is a heinously entitled and abusive man. If you were creating a justice system from scratch, how would you punish him and those like him? | ||
| 4. Spoiler: Taz returns from the dead. She is the ultimate survivor but is forced by her resurrection to consider her past deeds. She remains convinced that she only deserved the worst future. What assumptions do you make about your own future? How might you change them? | ||
Havoc
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Director Gavin Chalmers | CIA Middle East desk | |
| Captain Quint Dermott | Airbus copilot | |
| Captain Dani Evers | Airbus pilot | |
| Kurt Grice | Head of CIA Special Operations Group | |
| Eli Jackson | President of Australian airline | |
| Ernie Maxwell | CIA agent in charge of Diego Garcia black site | |
| Paola Ortiz | South American coup leader, escape from Diego Garcia black site | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Holly acts before she thinks. Mike thinks before he acts. Jermy feels before he thinks. Taz acts and struggles not to think. Andi feels before she acts. And Miranda...is Miranda. Which one are you? And why? How does it affect your life? | ||
| 2. What's the most exotic place you've ever been? How did it affect the way you look at where you live? | ||
| 3. Have you ever stood at the grave of someone you knew, loved, or were related to? How did it change your view of your own life? | ||
| 4. Everyone Miranda comes in contact with rises to their best self through no conscious effort of her own (well, except Elayne Kasprak). How do you think meeting Miranda would influence you? | ||
White Top
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Rick Danziger | Head of President Cole's Secret Service team | |
| Sarah Feldman | National Security Adviser | |
| Heidi Geller | Head of CIA Cyber Security Division | |
| Major Tamantha Jones | Marine One pilot | |
| Colonel Blake McGrady | Commander HMX-1 | |
| Harry Tallman | Head of CIA's Cyber Attack Division | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. In 2010 the US Supreme Court declared that corporations were people. They've gained a lot of rights since, including in 2023 the right to vote in a municipal election in Delaware. Many near-future stories in speculative fiction discuss corporations becoming a law unto themselves. Is that tipping point already here? | ||
| 2. It has been a long time as of this writing (thankfully) since the US has lost a President or Vice President while in office. Think about the recent administrations. How do you think the country would be different if one or the other was killed? | ||
| 3. The innocent victims on the ground killed by the White Top crash, had no warning. One moment they were going about their lives and the next they were dead. If you had a moment's warning, what last choice, act, thought would you have? | ||
| 4. Would there be any regrets? If so, are they something you could find a way to fix now? | ||
| 5. Which is a worse crime, foreign or domestic terrorism? Or a US drone attack on a foreign actor? Discuss this from all the various points of view. | ||
Start the Chase
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Each of these origin stories focus on a seminal moment in the characters' lives. And how they interpreted those changes to move forward in their lives. Discuss each of them: Miranda, Holly, Mike, Jeremy, Andi, and Taz. Who might have they become if they'd made different choices? | ||
| 2. Was there a seminal moment that shaped/changed the course of your own life? Using the form below, send in a sentence each about that person and the change they wrought, and M. L. will send you his. | ||
Lightning
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Lieutenant Commander Penny 'Copper' Brightman | Acting Captain of USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier | |
| General Liú Zuocheng | Co-vice-chairman CMC | |
| Commander Susan 'Sam' Piazza | Navy liaison / troubleshooter | |
| Rose Ramson | Wife of Senator Ramson | |
| Colonel Wang Daiyu | General Zhang Ru's wife | |
| General Zhang Ru | Member of CMC | |
| Sadie | Commander Susan Piazza's Shih Tzu | |
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 CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt (US Navy) |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. China has taken over and militarized much of the South China Sea, ignoring the rights of Vietnam, the Philippines, and others in the region. China sees this as justified by manifest destiny, self-protection, and shortening the route for their access to Middle East oil tankers. All despite the condemnation of the rest of the world, including the UN. How do you think this might shape future trade and conflict? | ||
| 2. Ultra-high-power laser satellites are (probably) still a thing of the future. Someday that technological hurdle will be crossed as well. Once they're operational, how do you think that might change the nature of conflict? More peaceful, like the anomalous side effect of MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction, that made everyone unwilling to use nukes even at the height of the Cold War? Or more dangerous? | ||
| 3. Lieutenant Commander Penny Brightman must take over an entire aircraft carrier's operation on no notice. Have you ever had to take on a job or project that was way out of your normal comfort zone? What did you learn by stretching to achieve that goal? Did you succeed, do okay, or not so much? How did that change what you did going forward? | ||
| 4. Miranda is constantly jerked from one task to the next. To an autistic, this is a personal disaster in the making. Have you experimented with longer focus on a single task vs. attempting to multi-task your life? What did you learn? (How did that change if you were the parent of an infant/toddler?) | ||
| 5. Send M. L. your favorite dog breeds and why. He'll send you back his. | ||
Skibird
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Bridgette 'Bridg' Cane | Davis Station manager | |
| Captain Antony Capra | Skibird pilot | |
| Lieutenant Colonel Kurchenko | Major Novikov's boss | |
| General Liú Zuocheng | Co-vice-chairman CMC | |
| General Mikhail Murov | Head of Russian FSB | |
| Captain Fyodor Novikov | Transport pilot for AARI, married to Aloysha | |
| Viktor Petrov | Progress Station Manager | |
| Colonel Nikolas Romanoff | Commander Russian AARI for Antarctica | |
| Oleg 'Ollie' Sidirov | Vostok station manager | |
| Colonel Artemy Turgenev | Fyodor's commander, works for Romanoff | |
| Freddie Vaughan | US Marshal | |
| Colonel Wang Daiyu | General Liú Zuocheng's assistant | |
| Aloysha | Fyodor Novikov's wife | |
| Barty | Head of ATSB (Australian Transportation Safety Board) | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Russia and China are threatening to walk away from the Antarctic Treaty System that says the continent may not be militarized or use for commercial resources (mining)--only science. Many of the world's past (and future) battles have been over resources, oil being the obvious one (but now also, among many others, the elements needed to make solar panels and long-life high-capacity batteries). Nature has concentrated some of these in a very few countries. Many are under the control of corporate raiders, keeping the governments unstable to take advantage. If the world was yours to order, how would you address this? A globalized version of the ATS? | ||
| 2. Have you ever been somewhere beyond immediate help? Hiking in the deep woods, driving across the Outback, out on a boat far from land, trapped on the Antarctic ice cap in a missile-damaged airplane? In the moments after a car crash or other accident? How did that experience make you feel? Invigorated to be alive? Terrified? Focused? | ||
| 3. When Holly gets the call from the Australian Transportation Safety Board, the rest of the team assumes they're going along when she asks. It doesn't occur to her that they might be going for her rather than for the crash. Thinking about your friends, how many would simply assume they were included or could help if you really needed it? Have you thanks them for that recently? | ||
| 4. Antarctica is very high on M. L.'s bucket list. Not a tourist visit, but living there through at least a season, perhaps a year. (It's an unlikely one now but it's still there on the list.) What's the craziest thing on your bucket list? Have you done anything to make it happen? (Send your bucket list to M. L. and he'll send back his.) | ||
Nightwatch
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Technical Sergeant Doyle Cowell | Nightwatch onboard analyst | |
| Kurt Grice | Head of CIA Special Operations Group | |
| Director Ernie Maxwell | CIA Middle East desk | |
| Captain Romaldo Sanchez | Captain of submarine | |
| Sergeant Tamisha Ward | Nightwatch onboard analyst | |
| Ching Hui Wu | Andi Wu's mother, Head of Wu and Wu Law | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. There are currently about 50,000 cargo ships crisscrossing the oceans. Estimates place 5-8,000 commercial planes aloft at all times. What other "systems" can you think of that are all overlapping on our planet? Trucks, power transmission, radio... | ||
| 2. The melting of the Arctic ice cap has numerous implications, climate and shipping being only two of them. What others can you come up with? | ||
| 3. Tech Sergeant Doyle sells out secrets for $50,000. Think up different scenarios: puncture someone's tire, send anonymous flowers to someone else's spouse to make them jealous, sell a state secret (if you had one), etc. Write down from least to most you'd have to be paid to do it. Compare the order you chose with others; discuss the different orders. | ||
| 4. The reach of drones is now global and their capabilities expand every day (dropping individual grenades in the Ukraine War was revealed just the week before this writing). How have they changed the world, how do you think they'll change it in the next 5-10 years? Send in your ideas and M. L. will send you a brief idea of his own. | ||
Osprey
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Lieutenant Sergei Balakin | Copilot of AN-74MP transport plane for AARI | |
| Vice Admiral Burkhart | Commanding officer of USS Gerald R. Ford strike group | |
| Ian Faulkner | Menwith Hill image analyst (IMINT) | |
| Group Captain Raymond Fielding | Co-director Menwith Hill | |
| General Garin | Daughter is Russian President's mistress | |
| Garina | Russian President's mistress | |
| Captain Natalia Ivanovna | Pilot of AN-74MP transport plane for AARI | |
| Samuil and Olya Mironova | Miranda's parents names in Russia (Samuel and Olivia Chase) | |
| General Mikhail Murov | Head of Russian FSB | |
| Commander Josh 'Viking' Osborne | RAF helicopter pilot | |
| Major Alexej Pronichev | Commander of Gromovo Air Base | |
| Lieutenant Colonel Shirinov | General Turgenev's assistant | |
| Major General Artemy Turgenev | Artic and Antartic operations, ARRI | |
| Inessa Turgeneva | Wife of Artemy Turgenev | |
| Astrid Underwood | Menwith Hill Director of Operations | |
| Captain Dave Walsh | Pilot CMV-22 | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Has a friend, relative, or co-worker ever betrayed you? How did that betrayal affect your future trust of others? Or if it didn't, why not? How, if you managed to, did you get past that betrayal? | ||
| 2. Discuss circles of loyalty: family, friends, community, state, country, global, humankind... | ||
| 3. The American NSA, UK's GCHQ, and others gather massive amounts of intelligence, including images, phone calls, messaging, etc. They do this to identify terrorist targets and to promote the security of their respective countries. Is this a "necessary evil" or an invasion of privacy? | ||
| 4. What's your favorite vacation spot? Share and discuss. Maybe trade for next year? Send your answers to M. L. using the form below and he'll send you back his. | ||
Gryphon
| Major Characters (by Last Name) | ||
| Elene Burduli | Pavle Rapava's girlfriend | |
| Klara Dahlberg | Swedish accident investigator | |
| Major Ingrid Eklund | Swedish Gripen pilot | |
| Commander Kerstin Holmgren | Commander of HSwMS Karlstad - Visby-class corvette | |
| CW3 Tad Jobson | Ex-Marine helo pilot | |
| Chief Kancheli | Head of Georgian Intelligence Service | |
| 2*Gen Sandor Kurbanov | NATO general | |
| Rolm Lindgren | President of LuftSvenska airline | |
| Max | Bartender/owner of The Bunker | |
| Valentina "Val" Mills | CIA Russia Desk | |
| Pavle Rapava | Georgia Intelligence Service analyst | |
| Capt Liisa Salo | Finnish F/A-18C pilot | |
| Tamar | Chief Kancheli's receptionist | |
| Inessa Turgeneva | Wife of Russia FSB general | |
| 2*Gen Pierre Vachon | NATO general | |
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| Book Club Questions | ||
| 1. Have you ever been in a multi-year relationship that did not include engagement or marriage? Or known someone who has? Discuss the actual or perceived advantages and disadvantages of doing this: emotional, financial, logistical, past history, future fears... | ||
| 2. What is the most interesting conference you've ever gone to or heard of? If money and time were no object, what conference would you most like to attend? Hint: as part of the research for this book, the author actually attended the ISASI annual conference for professional air-safety investigators. So: cooking, medieval studies, philosophy, knitting, ambulance design... | ||
| 3. There are so many trust issues in this book. Not only between Mike and Holly, but also Tad, Kurbanov, Max... How do you choose who to trust and not trust? | ||
| 4. What the most "exotic" recipe that you cook regularly? The author would love to see it (it might end up in some future book!) | ||
Wedgetail
Major Characters (by Last Name) | |
| Tuah bin Musa | Captain of Bapa |
| Grant Felton | Flight operations of E-7A Wedgetail |
| Barty Kirwan | Head of ATSB |
| Rowena McCain | Mission commander of E-7A Wedgetail |
| Benjamin Muntz | Head of Special Weapons research Israeli Defense Forces |
| Nick Nelson | Wing commander of E-7A Wedgetail |
| Adiputera Noor | Lieutenant in Singapore Air Force |
| Julian Osborn | Group Captain Royal Australian Air Force |
| Rachel Yung | Police Chief of Royal Malaysian Police Special Branch |
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E-7A Wedgetail ©Ronnie Macdonald |
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©ComensoliDavide |
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Reader's Group Questions
- What is the most exotic place you've ever traveled? What did you learn from the experience?
- Miranda has created her "Spheres" to avoid being overwhelmed. What habits have you created like that? Do they help or hinder? When was the last time you drove a new route to work or the store? Was it just a little unnerving?
- An autism therapist said that all of us probably share one or even ten traits with an autistic. She said that there challenge is they've got a hundred or more and they're all turned on all at once. What are some of the things you do that you think might be a shared trait (extra orderliness, particularly deep concentration to exclusion of all else, discomfort in new situations or groups...)? What would it be like if everyone's traits in the group were all going on at once in each of you?
- Holly is plagued by the conflict of her origins and their mutation into the need to protect those around her at any cost to herself. Discuss a driving need in your present thinking and try to trace back to its origins.
- Andi is constantly misinterpreting signals from Miranda's flat statements and taking them very personally. She's overreactive due to her family and her Army past. What do the other characters consistently misinterpret about each other?