Phil Donlay’s Category Five is the sort of ripping good yarn that real guys are supposed to like. All the archetypal, Ian Fleming elements are in place: a hot-shot zipping around the world in hot airplanes and cars, a brilliant and beautiful love interest, and plenty of personal and political intrigue. And to keep things clipping along, the plot whirls around in the vortex of a Category Five hurricane that is about to destroy a major American city. The flying sequences are hair-raising, so we’re not sure we can in good conscience recommend this as an airplane read, although Donlay could perhaps calm our fears with some more prosaic stories from his real life: When he’s not writing, he flies jets for a living. And as real guys will understand, that’s cool.
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