"Crashers" by Portland author Dana Haynes is a widescreen, high-concept action thriller centered on a team of airplane crash investigators -- the National Transportation Safety Board's "Go-Team."

In the novel's opening sequence a passenger jetliner, headed south out of PDX, suffers a sudden and fatal mysterious failure. Dr. Tommy Tomzak, a pathologist and ex-crash investigator, is first on the scene at the debris-littered crash site, a grass field alongside Interstate 5. He organizes the rescue of the survivors while establishing all the proper protocols for the investigation that he knows is to come.

Tomzak is drawn back into working for the NTSB as lead investigator. The rest of the team rushes in, racing to gather all the physical evidence of the crash before anything is lost. Tomzak struggles with his memories of a past failure as lead investigator and with the presence of an old lover on his team.

Even though readers know who caused the crash and how (though not why), it is interesting to see how the team of crashers operates, systematically re-creating and examining every particle of the disaster -- even charting the course of shrapnel through the bodies of all the passengers. The mechanics of this kind of investigation have a lot of intrinsic interest.

Haynes, veteran of a number of Oregon newspaper gigs, marshals the big picture and the details of the investigation vividly. It's a subject with a good deal of emotional traction -- with all our collective post-9/11 anxieties still hanging over the business of air travel.

The dynamics of a large-scale investigation, by a team of driven experts, begins to get some promising examination before being swept away by the needs of a broad-stroke thriller plot.

The novel's secondary plot plays out in Los Angeles and involves a gang of thuggish Irish-Protestant terrorists. A headstrong Israeli ex-spy named Daria Gibron impulsively infiltrates the terrorists, helping them to elude the authorities while sending secret messages to her emotionally involved FBI handler. As things progress Gibron proves to be a kind of unstoppable super-spy along the lines of Jason Bourne.

Carefully staged scenes of crashing airplanes, crashing cars, blazing guns and hand-to-hand combat increase as Haynes shepherds us toward the inevitable Hollywood finish. With each new big sequence and thoroughly telegraphed plot twist, readers will find themselves picturing this as a summer blockbuster movie played out on the page. The stock villains and the easily resolved personal conflicts of the heroes solidify the feeling that this book absolutely embraces all the movie-based clichés of the genre.

Those seeking diverting, but low impact, summertime beach reading may appreciate how Haynes has balanced all these predictable elements with aplomb, moving along the action and the large cast of uncomplicated characters with clockwork perfection. The story reaches the inevitable action climax with all just deserts and happy endings achieved in proper proportion.