Man of the Hour (Abridged, Audio cassette, Abridged edition)

When David Fitzgerald, a teacher in a Brooklyn high school, keeps his students from boarding a bus that turns out to have a bomb on it, he becomes the emblematic modern hero -- the President mentions him in a speech, TV talk shows fight over him, and camera crews film him in the classroom.

Then the police reveal that he is considered a suspect in the bombing, and everything turns upside down. His media appearances are made to look sinister. His livelihood is taken away. Even his right to see his own son is threatened. Transformed from hero to pariah, he has to put his life back together -- and finding the real bomber appears to be his only way out.

Man of the Hour is a taut, thoughtful thriller, and it signals the beginning of what should be Peter Blauner's long run on the bestseller lists.