Falling

This book was great entertainment! What a clever premise, and I was eager to find out how it was going to be resolved.

Captain Bill Hoffman is piloting a flight from LAX to JFK with 143 passengers on board. Just as the flight reaches cruising altitude, Bill receives an email. His wife and two kids have been kidnapped, and in order for his family to live, he has to crash the plane. And there is a mole on board to ensure that Bill follows instructions. Bill has to make an impossible choice. What will he do?

Whoo, this was a rollercoaster ride. With chapters alternating between what's happening in the air and what's happening on the ground, the reader knows more than any of the principal characters, but not so much that we know how the show more situation will get resolved. I appreciated that the terrorists were not depicted as purely evil; there is a human side to them that makes the situation all the more terrifying and heartbreaking.

Thanks to author T.J. Newman's ten years of experience as a commercial flight attendant, the scenes on board the flight were very authentic, detailed, and REAL. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! show less

I Just Want To Watch The World Burn. I'm of two minds on this book, so I'll write both reviews here. ;)

Every Airplane Action Movie You've Ever Seen - And That Is Why It Works. Briefly looking through the other Goodreads reviews (as I do before writing my own reviews), I saw a few criticisms along the lines of "you can pretty well imagine any airplane action movie you've ever seen, and that is what you have here" - and, yes, that is actually valid. But need I remind readers of this review that many of those movies have made *millions* of dollars at the box office, and at least a few others have achieved a cult following over the years? There are *reasons* these movies work, and it is for these same reasons that this book works as well. show more Another, much more valid, reviewer noted that the opening scene - featuring a hole in the side of a falling aircraft - had absolutely nothing to do with the book, and in fact (my own point here) was immediately retconned at the beginning of Chapter 1. This, along with the visual of the cover that makes the reader think that this will be about a falling aircraft, *almost* smacks of deceptive advertising - which a careful examination of the cover shows is *barely* averted by the fact that if you remove the title and flip the image into a 3D (mathematical) plane such that one end of the cover is closer to you than the other, it is clear that the actual image is *not* of a plane *falling*, but *flying*. Which is actually the action tale we get - a man forced into a Job-esque (or perhaps Solomon-esque?) decision of watching his family be murdered... or he can murder 150 people while committing suicide. Along the way, the FBI gets involved and we get a compelling ground story, though the bit at *Yankee* Stadium (not Dodger Stadium as another reviewer noted) during the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series is in fact contrived yet cool. Ultimately even with these issues, this is still a 5* book - though yet again, I do not understand why *this* book gets all the hype and publicity while other books that are at least as good languish in obscurity.

And from the other side...

"That was then. Now I Just Want You To Burn." Ok, so that title is a bit spoilery, as it is in fact a line that occurs late in the book. Though out of context, it is just cool. :D This is one action-packed book that has a few cliches - hello, ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series- yet still manages to keep the reader glued to the page, desperate to see what happens next. Like some (yet far from most) other airplane action tales, this one has a strong ground game (even the dang World Series scene turns out cool, if contrived) mostly featuring an FBI agent regularly frustrated by FBI bureaucracy and seemingly as immune to damage as Halo's Master Chief. (Seriously, I think this dude absorbs more critical wounds than I've ever seen in any other action movie.) If you're looking for a straight up "don't think too much and just enjoy the action" type of tale, this one really is pretty dang good, up there with most any Die Hard *movie* (the books the first two Die Hard movies were based on actually had a *bit* more thinking involved, and yes, I've read them both - about three years ago, IIRC). While I still don't understand the *massive* hype and publicity of this book - I've seen as-good-or-better tales languish in obscurity *this year* simply because they don't have the strength of a Mega publisher behind them - again, for what it is, this book is truly solid and a really fun time.

As you can see from both lines of thinking, this book is still, even with its issues and even with my questions re: strength of publisher, very much recommended. show less

What would you do if you were a pilot and someone told you they’d kidnapped your family and if you don’t crash the plane, they’ll kill them? That’s the terrifying premise in T.J. Newman’s debut novel, Falling. Pilot Bill Hoffman gets just such a call shortly after beginning his cross-country flight. Along with a picture of his wife in children in hoods with bombs strapped to them. Crash the plane or your family dies. Bill’s response is I won’t crash the plane and you won’t kill my family. Now he has five hours to try and make both those statements true.

Falling grabs your attention from the opening line and propels you forward for the next 300 pages. Newman develops her characters with care. The premise is exciting, but show more the tension arises because you get to know and care about Bill, his family, the flight crew, and the FBI agents. You even gain some understanding of the perpetrators, who are more than monolithic bad guys.

Newman more than delivers the goods when it comes to action as well. Alternating between events on the plane and on the ground keeps you flipping the pages. The safety of Bill’s family and the safety of the plane appear to be mutually exclusive, especially as the ticking clock gets closer to zero.

This book is the closest I’ve come to the experience of seeing Die Hard for the first time. Great action, great characters, and pacing that will have you holding your breath. This summer thriller is going to be in everyone’s hands. Don’t miss out!

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. show less

Falling by T. J. Newman is a very highly recommended intense and shocking thriller that will leave you frantic to reach the end. It also resulted in a personal oath to avoid flying again.

Coastal Airways captain Bill Hoffman is called in by his superior at the last minute to take over Flight 416 from LAX to JFK Airport. Soon after the plane is airborne, he gets an email from his wife, Carrie consisting of a photo showing her and their 10-year-old son, Scott, taken hostage in their living room, with their faces hooded and Carrie strapped with bombs. After this he receives a FaceTime call from Saman Khani, the kidnapper. Khani demands that Bill must make a choice between crashing the plane with 149 souls aboard or the terrorist will kill show more Carrie, Scott, and Elise, the Hoffmans’ 10-month-old baby. He is also instructed not to tell anyone, or his family will die. Bill's response is that he will not crash the plane and Khani will not kill his family. How Bill can manage to save his family without crashing the plane will take all his experience and intelligence, as well as that of his trusted crew to make it happen.

The diverse cast of characters are all portrayed as complicated, real, and credible people. You will care about them and be invested in their survival. The actions everyone takes to ensure no one dies and the reactions of the characters are believable. I'm sure this is due to Newman's career as a flight attendant, so she knows procedures and reactions of passengers. I can't wait for her next novel!

This is an unputdownable, shocking, frightening thriller that keeps up a lightning-fast pace throughout the whole novel. The writing was exceptional in this debut novel, providing the details while keeping the anticipation and suspense high. I was invested in the outcome and breathless as the drama kept increasing the tension. This excellent novel reads like an action movie and is a perfect summer read - although not if flights are involved. You will stay up late to finish Falling, no caffeine required.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster via Netgalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/07/falling.html show less

I wanted to walk away from this book a couple of times. Thrillers that needlessly indulge cliche after cliche and whose plots hinge on the unlikeliest coincidences and thin reeds never really interest me. Kuddos to writing what one knows--the scenes in the air cabin are pretty grounded, except for poison canister scene #2.

Of course, the silliest element here--and it's a tall order trying to pick a winner (like the Yankees winning the world series and not stopping play despite the incoming suicide plane; or not morse coding in the fact that the co-pilot is a terrorist despite morse-coding in everything else; or the FBI agent going rogue only to end up like OJ Simpson's Nordberg by the time he gets to the bad guys, totally FUBAR--is the show more notion of Kurdish terrorists high-jacking an American commercial airliner and taking the pilot's family hostage at the point of a suicide vest (I could add the 'only to make the superfluous pilot choose whether to save his family or the plane' but why bother?)

The compulsive urge to scotch realism to avoid the charge of Islamophobia--and going by the Kirkus Review, this urge failed all the same--creates a bizarre plot point that gets sillier with every subsequent revelation. These terrorists are supposedly sympathetic because they are reacting to American indifference to the plight of the Kurds in the wake of the defeat of ISIS at the hands of the Turks. Despite the fact that the novel ends with the hero and his wife plotting to inform themselves about Kurdish history and figure out ways to help Kurdish focused NGOs, neither of the terrorists is at all sympathetic nor do they ever make a compelling case for why anyone should suddenly care about their narcissistic and homicidal fantasies--or how the brutal murder of totally unrelated people will help the average American suddenly have anything but negative opinions about the rest of the world's Kurds.

That being said, I await the inevitable movie. show less

"Falling" is an excellent thriller, and even more impressive when considering that this is the debut novel for author, TJ Newman.

Captain Bill Hoffman had agreed to take on a cross country flight to help out his boss at Coastal Airlines. Things at home with wife Carrie and children Scott and Elise are more than a little chilly due to Bill's decision because it means missing some parental duties again.

The flight starts off as routine as always for the veteran pilot until Carrie sends him an email that includes an attachment showing her and the kids bound and hooded. As Bill attempts to work through his confusion, he's contacted by his family's captor, Sam. Sam gives Bill a simple choice - crash the plane and kill all 140+ souls aboard or show more watch his family die.

And with that, a terrific thriller works it's way into the reader's mind and doesn't let up until the very end. There are a number of satisfying and believable plot twists throughout the story making "Falling" extremely hard to put down. show less

W…O…W!!! After the explosive first chapter, I couldn’t stop listening!

I’m a nervous flyer, and this story just added fuel to that fire. I expect this tale to flash through my mind the next time I step onto an airplane.

The pilot—Bill—is happy to cover for another pilot at the last minute, rather than continue a tense conversation with his wife. But once he’s in the air, he finds out that his family is being held hostage, to force him to crash the airplane. The kidnappers have taken their time to shape a well-thought-out and flawless plan. Their demand? Bill will have to choose between losing his family or killing the one hundred and forty-three souls on the plane, and countless people on land.

What would you do in his show more situation? I hope there are plenty of real-life pilots that are as determined and quick-thinking as Bill. This audiobook is so fast-paced and suspenseful, it was over in no time! And this is the author’s first novel. I’m ready for her next book! show less