The day before midnight

Format:

Book

Title:

The day before midnight

Author:

Hunter, Stephen, 1946-

ISBN:

9780553053272

Publication Information:

Toronto ; New York : Bantam Books, 1989.

Physical Description:

404 pages ; 24 cm

Summary:

"The countdown to midnight begins on a winter dawn. Doors burst open in the Hummel family home in suburban Maryland and commandos brandishing Uzi submachine guns rush inside. As his wife and children watch in horror, Jack Hummel, the local welder, is whisked away.The reason for Hummel{u2019}s abduction soon becomes clear: A sophisticated paramilitary assault team has taken control of the nearby South Mountain MX missile site. But the launch key rests within a vault behind a half-ton titanium block. Hummel must utilize his expertise to cut through the block to the key. By midnight South MOuntain will be fully operational {u2013} and the nuclear missile will be armed and ready to wreak destruction. Where? And why? Who are these men who want to turn that key? Above all, who is the mastermind who has mounted such a staggering takeover of America{u2019}s most secret missile site?"--Http://www.stephenhunter.net.

Subject(s):

Special forces (Military science) -- United States -- Fiction.

Terrorists -- United States -- Fiction.

Terrorists -- Soviet Union -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Soviet Union.

United States.

Genre:

Action and adventure fiction.

Fiction.

Adventure fiction.

Spy stories.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	Hunter, S.	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Lyons Public Library	M HUNTER	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

When a band of terrorists initiates a plot to gain control of the launch key to an MX missile, the computer whiz who designed the missile site's defenses tackles the challenge of thwarting them. But if he fails, the terrorists will launch an attack that could devastate the entire planet.

Author Notes

Stephen Hunter was born on March 25, 1946, in Kansas City, Missouri. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University in 1968. He spent two years in the United States Army as a ceremonial soldier in Washington, D.C., and later wrote for a military paper, the Pentagon News. In 1971, he joined The Baltimore Sun as a copy editor and he became its film critic in 1982. He won the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award in the criticism category in 1998 and the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2003.

He is the author of several books including The Master Sniper, The Second Saladin, Dirty White Boys, and Soft Target. He is also the author of the Bob Lee Swagger series and the Earl Swagger series. He has written non-fiction books including Violent Screen: A Critic's 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Mayhem, American Gunfight, and Now Playing at the Valencia.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Hunter ( The Spanish Gambit ) has written a smoothly believable race-against-time thriller with frightening plausibility. Unidentified military terrorists kidnap welder Jack Hummel from his Maryland home and direct him to cut through a block of titanium to reach a launch key in the South Mountain MX missile site. The president decides to send in the crack Delta assault team, but the man best suited to command them is Col. Dick Puller, who was discredited and disgraced in Iran in 1979. Puller, in turn, must work with the only man who knows the missile silo, its designer, Prof. Peter Thiokol. The leader of ``Aggressor-One'' is discovered to be Russian Military Intelligence chief Arkady Pashin: he is charismatic, reactionary and messianically determined to launch the single MX that will trigger a massive Soviet reply. Part of the fast-moving plot revolves around two abandoned coalmine tunnels, a stupid Russian spy and Thiokol's estranged wife, who unwittingly gave the Russians the plans for South Mountain. The 7 a.m.-to-midnight action flashes cinematically on Delta Force, the crack Russian Spetsnaz troops and various civilians. The book is fun, even if the finale is too drawn-out and a bit preachy: `` . . . the regular people, the Rest of US'' will save us. 40,000 first printing; $40,000 ad budget. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved