ATLANTA – 19 November 2009. The novel, Rough Air made its official debut last week, topping out at #39 on Amazon’s literary bestseller list and raising the curiosity of both the Atlanta literary community, and the conventional publishing world.

Rough Air is the second novel from Kevin Donovan, and like his first, it draws from his long airline career at Delta Air Lines. “It’s a murder mystery”, said Donovan. “These days, CEO’s are not the most popular people in our society. Somebody had to pay the price, and unfortunately, it was Maynard Brennan,” he said, referring to the chief executive officer of the fictional air carrier, Alta Airlines.

The story opens with the discovery of Brennan’s decaying corpse, seated proudly at his desk on a typically hot summer day in Atlanta. He has been murdered - his once beating heart torn from his body and placed symbolically in his outbox. The reader is then taken back to Maynard’s corporate origins and the chain of events that lead to his demise.

Much of the story focuses on the plight of a large local airline and their effort to avert bankruptcy via a poorly conceived “airline within an airline”. Through the eyes of Caroline Douglas, a rising star in the company and the protagonist of AIRLINE, Donovan’s first book, the reader witnesses the unfortunate triumph of individual interests over collective success, culminating in the gradual descent of a once proud enterprise. Both social commentary and compelling mystery, Rough Air juxtaposes the historic paternal culture of the once successful Alta Airlines with the destructive forces that define its destiny.

Rough Air is published by iUniverse, and available from bookstores everywhere. Kevin Donovan is an author and sports marketing consultant based in Decatur, Georgia.

For more information on Donovan and his other works, visit www.kevinwdonovan.com , or e-mail the author at kdonoval@gmail.com .