Falling by T J Newman

Posted on the 08 November 2022 by Booksocial

When is the best time to read Falling a book about a hostage situation on a plane to New York? Well not when you’re on your way back from New York that’s for sure!

Falling – the blurb

You just boarded a flight to New York.
There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.
What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.
For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.
The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.
Enjoy the flight.

Crash Landing

I purchased this book in Barnes and Noble New York (yes name dropping) having just visited Ground Zero. You can’t help but immediately compare the two and through some sort of morbid curiosity I was drawn to the very striking cover. It turns out the book, about a terrorist attack on a plane, was written by an air hostess. The bulk of which was written whilst she was working. How could she not be scared to death writing about all the ways a plane is vulnerable?

I’ve seen it described as Speed but on a plane. I loved Keanu., I mean Speed and I see the comparisons. I just couldn’t remove myself from the fact it was New York, the World Trade Centre, Ground Zero. Maybe if I had read it 12 months later when it all wasn’t so fresh then I would have eaten it up as the tense thriller it is. But literally as I sat in JFK it felt very real and I had to put it down until I was safe at home thousands of miles away. Even then I still found it harrowing at times. I enjoyed it, speeded through it (terrible pun sorry) but it struck a chord and I was left feeling uncomfortable and sad at the same time. Good writing you could argue then!