''Night Fall'' is a 2004 novel by American author

Nelson DeMille Nelson Richard DeMille (born August 23, 1943) is an American author of action adventure and suspense novels. His novels include '' Plum Island'', '' The Charm School'', and '' The Gold Coast''. DeMille has also written under the pen names Jack ...

Plot

The story begins with the 1996 crash of

TWA Flight 800 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31pm. EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy Internationa ...

off Long Island, New York. A couple conducting an illicit affair on the beach witness the crash and flee the scene, having accidentally videotaped the crash and what appears to be a missile rising from the ocean towards the plane. Five years later, Anti-Terrorist Task Force (ATTF, a fictional

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

department based on the

Joint Terrorism Task Force In the United States, the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) are locally-based multi-agency partnerships between various federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies tasked with investigating terrorism and terrorism-related crimes, led by the ...

) detective John Corey is encouraged to reinvestigate the crash, officially blamed on mechanical failure, by his wife Kate Mayfield, who had worked on the original investigation. The story is a sequel to ''

The Lion's Game ''The Lion's Game'' is a 2000 novel by American author Nelson DeMille. It is the second of DeMille's novels to feature the detective John Corey, now working as a contractor for the fictional FBI Anti-Terrorist Task Force in New York City. The 20 ...

'' and reintroduces a number of characters from that novel. A sequel to ''Night Fall'', titled ''

Wild Fire Wildfire is a fire in an area of combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or rural areas. Wildfire or Wild Fire may also refer to: People * "Wildfire", Chippewa name of sculptor Edmonia Lewis (c. 1844–1907) Arts, entertainment, ...

'', was released on November 6, 2006. One of the returning characters from "The Lion's Game" and "Plum Island" is CIA operative Ted Nash, whom DeMille has developed into Corey's antagonist and nemesis in his career with the ATTF. Much of the action in the novel centers on the search for the couple who inadvertently videotaped the in-air explosion that brought down TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island. At the center of Corey's investigation are witness statements claiming that the fatal explosion was caused by a missile and not by mechanical failure. Corey is warned by his superiors not to look into the TWA crash, and he and his wife are temporarily assigned to anti-terrorist activities in

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

to keep them from pursuing the case. They return to the U.S., however, in early September 2001, and Corey makes crucial discoveries which are quickly overshadowed by the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. ''Night Fall'' debuted as number one on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller List on December 12, 2004, and remained on the list for 11 weeks.The New York Times Best Seller List, February 20, 2005.
Retrieved February 5, 2009.

References

External links

Night Fall on Nelson DeMille's Official Website
{{Nelson DeMille 2004 American novels Novels by Nelson DeMille Novels set in Long Island TWA Flight 800