BLACK SUNDAY by Thomas Harris

 Finished We 4/14/21

I found this paperback on the shelves downstairs after reading 'HANNIBAL'. I was really surprised that Thomas Harris also wrote 'BLACK SUNDAY' and I remember seeing the movie in the late 70's.

The premise of the book is that middle eastern terrorists put together a plan to use something like the Goodyear blimp to explode above the stadium in New Orleans during the Super Bowl.

 The link to the book's page on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_(novel)

The plot of the novel from Wikipedia:

"Michael Lander is a pilot who flies the Aldrich Blimp over NFL football games to film them for network television. He is also, secretly, deranged by years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, a bitter court martial on his return and a failed marriage. He longs to commit suicide and to take with him as many as possible of the cheerful, carefree American civilians he sees from his blimp each weekend.

Lander conspires with Dahlia Iyad, an operative from the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, to launch a suicide attack using a bomb composed of plastique and a quarter million steel darts, housed on the underside of the gondola of the Aldrich Blimp, which they will detonate over Tulane Stadium during a Super Bowl between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins. Dahlia and Black September, in turn, intend the attack as a wake-up call for the American people, to turn their attention and the world's to the plight of the Palestinians.

American and Israeli intelligence, led by Mossad agent David Kabakov and FBI agent Sam Corley, race to prevent the catastrophe. They piece together the path of the explosives into the country, and Dahlia's own movements.

In a spectacular conclusion, the bomb-carrying blimp is chased by helicopters as it approaches the packed stadium."

The book was an easy read and compelling. 'The Best' for a beach read and all of Harris's books were made into excellent movies. 

I still am kind of astounded that Harris wrote this novel and the Hannibal Lector books.