Book Review Club - September 2021

 This month I will be reviewing Falling by T.J. Newman.  One of the things I want to point out about this book is that, like most of the books I've read in the last six months or so, it's one that was recommended (presumably) by GMA in one way or another.  What that means is a LOT of people sign up to check the book out of the library and if you wait to do that, you could be waiting six months or more for your turn to come.  And then when your turn pops up and you finally check the ebook out, you have two weeks to read it before it's electronically snatched back from you.

The reason this is important in this review is because the last book I read from this GMA list, I barely finished before it was snatched.  And to be honest, if they hadn't reminded me I only had three days left, I probably wouldn't have finished it.  The book before that I didn't finish before they snatched it back so now I'm at the back of the line waiting 6 months or so before I can read more of it, not that I'm that broken up about it or anxious to get it back from the library.

But with Falling, I had read the whole book within two days of checking it out - I didn't want to put it down!

Captain Bill Hoffman is a pilot scheduled to fly Flight 416 from Los Angeles to New York City.  His wife, Carrie, is not happy because Bill had promised their son that he would be at his game that day but accepted this flight anyway.  Bill is not happy either but wishes that Carrie would understand that his boss had asked him to take this flight as a personal favor and you can't say no to the boss.

Bill tried to call Carrie when he got to the airport but the call went to her voicemail so he couldn't communicate with her until the flight was well on its way.  Only, when he heard from her he found out that his family had been taken hostage. 

There was no ransom demand.  What the kidnapper wanted was for Bill to make a choice - crash the plane he was flying and kill all 149 souls onboard or his family would be killed.  What would he choose?  His family?  Or the 149 souls on the plane?  He couldn't tell anyone or his family would be killed.  He was told that there was a Plan B so that if he couldn't - or wouldn't - crash the plane, there was a backup onboard.  It seemed like a no win situation.  Who could he trust?  Did he kill 149 people on the plane or did he let his famiy be killed?  And how do you negotiate with someone where their only goal is to see people die?

It was a fascinating read and one I wondered how accurate some of the information was as it related to things on a plane - for example, in the book they said there was only enough oxygen in those masks that fall down to last for 12 minutes.  Is that true?  I don't know.  The author is a flight attendant and in her acknowledgements she said that she wanted it to be "accurate enough to be convincing but skewed enough so that it wasn't a training manual".   Regardless, I enjoyed the book.  It's a debut book by the author and one she said she got 42 rejections on before she sold it.

I'm glad she sold it and glad it got recommended.  I also recommend it.

For more reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html .