Wings of Fire
Former Air Force General Patrick McClanahan and his Night Stalkers are a  freelance commando team that operates outside the American government--way  outside--for reasons that author Dale Brown never makes entirely clear. Hired by  a petroleum cartel to protect its interests in the Middle East, the team is  testing new weapons developed by Sky Masters, McClanahan's private company, in  the skies over Libya. Defending themselves against Libyan missiles, they get  involved in a conflagration sparked by the new Libyan leader, who's convinced a  radical Muslim faction to assassinate the pro-Western president of Egypt and  help him take over the country's oil fields in return for his promise to unite  all of Arab North Africa under theocratic fundamentalist rule. But his plans are  foiled by the American-born widow of the slain president, with the timely  assistance of McClanahan, the Night Stalkers, and their laser ray guns, plasma  bombs, exoskeleton battle armor, and other weapons that Brown, an acknowledged  master of the techno-thriller, describes in painstaking detail. The cumbersome  plot and convoluted relationships among the central characters don't make much  sense, and the action is so far over the top that it's barely believable, but  that won't matter to Brown's enthusiastic readers, who've made his previous 13  books best sellers.--Jane Adams