7.4 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print (Hardcover) ISBN 0-7126-3626-9 Publisher Barrie & Jenkins | 3.7/5 Goodreads Publication date 1990 Pages 224 pp Originally published 1990 Genre Thriller Country Scotland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Westwind is a 1990 novel written by Ian Rankin, and is one of the author's earliest works. The author has explained on his website that he was not happy with the outcome and unlike other early works by Rankin, it has not been reissued.
Contents
Plot summary
The Zephyr computer system monitors the progress of the United Kingdom's only spy satellite. When this system briefly goes offline, the book's main characters Hepton and Dreyfuss (the sole survivor of a space shuttle crash) have the only key to the enigma that must be solved if both men are to stay alive.
Author's comments
Rankin writes on his website that the book was an attempt at a conspiracy-theory novel, set partly in the USA (a country he had never visited) and with a lot of humour. The editor of the time did not like it, and had him make many changes - taking out the humour and the US settings and by the end he felt the book had ceased to be his. Rankin also says he doubts he could read it today.