- It's been ages since I've read a thriller. I've been holding off, just desperately waiting for the next Don Winslow due in September and the new Adrian McKinty due soon after (hopefully).
- But this debut by former American flight attendant T.J.Newman has been receiving huge plaudits by some big names, including Winslow and McKinty, and Dervla McTiernan, Janet Evanovich, Lee Child and James Patterson. So looking for something light and breezy during lockdown I tried it.
- Wow! It's a riveting story with loads of pace and tension. There are three interlocked dramas that propel it: one on the LA to New York flight, one in the pilot's home in LA, and one involving FBI agents and their intervention. This is not your classic who-dun-it, the perps being disclosed early on. It's a drama of terrorists seeking revenge and retribution.
- Because of the author's decade of experience in the skies there’s a credibility and realism to the story. It's full of fascinating details brought vividly to life. She also has the ability to suck the reader in emotionally. Virtually every chapter, for example, ends on a mini cliffhanger.
- The terrorists are immigrants to America from war-torn Kurdistan, and are at least allowed to articulate their case. Newman is sympathetic to their unforgivable betrayal by the US and its allies during the Syria-ISIS conflict over the past decade. They were abandoned and subsequently invaded by neighbouring Turkey.
- To a non-American there are evident weaknesses in the book. It celebrates and honours every category of person and entity involved in the drama - whether they be police, air traffic controllers, flight attendants, airport authorities, politicians, passengers. They're great Americans heroes, the lot of them. They're all lauded and honoured. In other words it’s thoroughly sentimental.
- Nevertheless, it's an absorbing read, and will undoubtedly become a blockbuster movie in a few years. Thankfully Tom Hanks will be too old by then for the lead role!
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