BOOK CORNER: Female pilot battles madman, computer in new flight thriller

By Marissa Wells

Contributing Writer

Capt. Kate Gallagher has been blamed for a plane crash that left six people dead. She finds herself on a quest to clear her name and stop another deadly disaster after a madman places a computer virus on the flight controls of an airliner. 

No one believes her and in the ensuing story she not only has to endure humiliation and blame, but risk her safety and that of her 5-year-old daughter. Will proving her innocence cost Kate her life?

Find out in the new thriller, “High Wire,” by Kam Majd.

The book was inspired by Majd’s fascination with how fly-by-wire controls function.

“With so much computer power behind one degree of turn, I asked myself, ‘What if something goes wrong, electronically?’ That led to the storyline of a person placing a virus into one of these,” Majd said. “From there I went down the rabbit hole and never came back.”

Majd describes his book as a story about both technology and the human spirit.

“I wanted to express the complexity of modern aviation,” Majd said. “But more than that, I wanted to express my hope for humanity at a time we could all use some hope.”

“High Wire” can be enjoyed by a wide audience that includes both adults and high school students.

“There is plenty of factual data and real-life experiences to learn from,” Majd said. “But I also wanted the reader to see what it was like in the real cockpit when things go wrong, and in particular, the challenges that a person of minority (background) may have experienced.”

In “High Wire,” Kate faces obstacles such as being the only female in her industry, loss of her husband, single motherhood, the feelings of impatience, frustration, fear and more that may accompany the challenges of life.

“I’ve always been like most of us, a student of the human spirit for as far back as I could recall,” Majd said. “I’ve met some incredible people in my life, so to create a story that you could relate to, you could understand and you could put yourself into was important to me.”

In addition to being an author, Majd is a pilot, based in Los Angeles. For more information about the author and his work, visit Kammajd.com.

“High Wire” will be available for $14.95 (paperback), $24.95 (hardcover), $2.99 (ebook) via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other book-selling portals.