"Hornet Flight"
By Ken Follett
420 pages
Dutton
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Every Ken Follett book appears on the bestseller list without fail and maybe that's why, though I enjoyed "Eye of the Needle," I ignored him for so long. I just assumed he was turning out the bloated crowd-pleasers that tend to define the output of bestselling authors. But my love for World War II espionage tales made me try Follett's last novel, "Jackdaws," the story of a group of female agents attempting to sabotage a Nazi communications exchange in occupied France, and I had a terrific time with its slick mixture of action and romance melodrama.

Follett sticks to WWII in his latest book, "Hornet Flight," and the results are almost as much fun. (The inclusion of a few torture scenes that violate the adventure-story tone are the book's biggest problem.) Set in 1941, when it seemed as if the Germans might invade Britain and end the war before the Americans could get involved, "Hornet Flight" takes place on an island off the coast of Nazi-occupied Denmark. Its hero is the sort of bright 18-year-old who, because he's forthright and has a rebellious streak, is just bound to get himself in trouble with the occupying Germans. For Harald Olufsen, it's a matter of pride to stand up to the local bullies who toady to the Nazis, and soon he's hiding out from them in fear for his life. He has stumbled, however, on a secret installation that may explain the Nazis' success in shooting down RAF bombers. It's part of the pleasurable contrivance of Follett's plot that Harald happens to be hiding out in a place where he has access to both the girl he loves and an old Hornet Moth plane that could bring his secret knowledge to the attention of the Brits.

The story works, not just because Follett knows how to keep a plot moving and how to intercut the various strands of narrative for suspense, but because he has a solid talent for describing physical action. Harald's flight in the restored Hornet, with the inevitable malfunctions that almost spell disaster, is rendered with an admirable clarity. Follett achieves the verbal equivalent of the invisible craft you find in '40s Hollywood movies, and you read him for the same sort of pleasure you get from a WWII action melodrama like Carol Reed's "Night Train to Munich." Follett is essentially a romantic (his first big success, "Eye of the Needle," borrowed the plot of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" for the purposes of a spy story) in love with derring-do. If "Hornet Flight" and "Jackdaws" feel familiar (that's part of their pleasure), they're also good arguments that there are still plenty of good stories left in World War II.

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"Briarpatch"
By Ross Thomas
336 pages
Thomas Dunne Books
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Ross Thomas is the most entertaining mystery writer I've ever read, and one of the shames of American publishing is that almost all of his novels were out of print when he died in 1995. Beginning with "Out on the Rim" and "Briarpatch," St. Martin's Press is righting that wrong by republishing the work of this genuine American master. I envy those of you who will read Thomas for the first time, and I can't be the only longtime reader happy to know that we can now send people to bookstores and actually have them find him back on the shelves. (Used copies of his books have often commanded whopping prices.)

The best short description of Thomas' work came from a Village Voice writer who said that what Elmore Leonard did for crime in the streets, Thomas did for "crime in the suites." Thomas, who worked as a reporter and in public relations and politics before becoming a full-time writer, wrote what are essentially dry, sardonic farces. His villains are almost always corrupt corporate honchos or politicians whose feet are itching to climb the ladder of success. Nothing shocked Thomas -- he accepted the intersection of business, politics and crime as a given -- or his heroes.

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