In the prologue of Buchman’s exciting sixth outing for Miranda Chase (after Honor Flight), U.S. Air Force Col. Vicki “Taser” Cortez, who’s flying in a stolen helicopter, crashes in the Sonoran Desert after a battle that has destroyed four major drug cartels. She survives, but because of her involvement in the helicopter theft, she must adopt a new identity. Six months later, as Tasia Vicki Flores, a member of a southern Oregon wildfire crew, she’s at the site of a burn on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, where she witnesses the crash of a National Guard helicopter. Miranda Chase, “the best plane-crash investigator in the entire NTSB,” and her eclectic team investigate. One team member, Jeremy Trahn, turns out to have slept with Vicki barely a day before her own helicopter crash. The plot contains other improbable elements, but Buchman does a good job developing complex characters and relationships amid all the conflict and carnage. Techno-thriller fans will look forward to seeing a lot more of Miranda, who’s that rarity in the subgenre, a strong female lead. (Self-published)