As a debut novel by a former flight attendant, this one is firmly seated in the thriller genre. A plane carrying 144 passengers from LAX to JFK is commandeered by suicidal Kurdish nationalists, while a co-conspirator forces the wife and children of the too-good-to be-true superhero pilot into suicide bomb suits while holding the detonators, back in their Los Angeles home. The pilot is given the choice of either crashing the plane into an iconic site of national importance that is not revealed until late in the tale, or choosing the option of having his whole family killed. Needless to say, neither endpoints the terrorists have carefully planned ensues-in such stories, unlike in the real world, the good guys always win.
I will not reveal more of the rather ingenious plot, with many unpredictable twists and false leads. Some of the fast-paced action is very realistic, and some is just so bizarre as to be laughable. Much of it seems like an rather too obvious attempt to build suspense in the reader, with the emphasis on time lines that seem impossible.
The author builds on her ten-year experience as a flight attendant to provide unique insights into the lives of flight crews, air traffic controllers, and the operation of commercial jets that few readers would otherwise learn about.
There is one feature here that is uncommon in thrillers- the lives of the terrorists are revealed in detail and the reasons for their actions are given a fair hearing. Their grievances with the U.S. abandonment of their former allies, the Iraqi and Syrian Kurds, to Turkish and ISIS forces with the resultant hundred thousand deaths (a historical detail most U.S. citizens will have never known or forgotten) is given a sympathetic treatment and some degree of understanding. The government of the U.S. does not escape unscathed. Although the president and the military get involved and the action is obviously set in the last year or two, no names are mentioned. (And, no, the Yankees have not won the World Series since 2009.) Most of the FBI agents are portrayed as almost clownish in their incompetence.
My inability to suspend analysis of realistic possibilities limits my enjoyment of such tales, much as I admire the imaginative possibilities of their authors, but for lovers of the thriller genre, I suspect that this is about as good as it gets.
Thanks,
Ruth.
The Passionate Reader 