How much do you care about early 80s RAF radio procedure? Defector is an homage to the British Phantom in West Germany, and the men who flew them. It was a joyful time, with the knowledge of looming nuclear war leavened by the fact that you had a high performance fighter jet and a mandate to tear around the sky practicing your tactics. "Flash" and "Razor" are the best in Battle Flight, a quick scramble Phantom squadron that has their routine of exercises, drinking, and sex interrupted by the defection of a Soviet pilot with a prototype Su-27. The Spetznas intervenes to get the Su-27 back, Flash and Razor have to fly into battle, and Soviet and British spymasters engage in a duel of wits over the fate of the plane.

On the plus side, Gledhill definitely knows what he's talking about when he talks Phantoms, and has a scenario that's tense without starting WW3. The minus is uneven pacing, hefty infodumps, and an authorial voice that renders the multiple points of view confusingly flat.