52 in 25: #37 - Falling

During my road trip, I read a recent novel by T.J. Newman, Falling.  I was intrigued because I heard that the movie rights were purchased and that it was exciting.  I also read that she was heavily influenced by Michael Crichton, so I expected something like his writing.

 

Well, I was disappointed.  Of course, as a debut novel trying to live up to Crichton, that’s a lot to ask for.  It’s not that it was necessarily bad, just that it wasn’t that good.

 

Essentially, a plane is hijacked by terrorists.  But it’s not like any other hijacking.  One terrorist kidnaps the pilot’s family and threatens to kill them if he doesn’t crash the plane.  He also is told that he cannot contact anyone and that there is someone on board watching him.  Sounds interesting.  Fairly original.  Unfortunately, the payoff does not live up to the concept.  The good guys are all overly heroic (no surprise that the flight attendant author makes the flight attendants as the real heroes) and (spoiler) of course don’t die.  The bad guys are killed.  Major disaster is averted.  Kind of boring and predictable in the end.

 

Again, it’s not bad.  It kept me reading.  But it is no Crichton, even Crichton-light.  I would say that even his “pulp” novels written under pseudonym (at least the ones that I have read) were better.  It is incredibly forgettable.  Not every book has to be great, but they should at least be memorable in some way.