UNACCOMPANIED MINOR

A laugh-out-loud thriller about family court, money laundering and skyjacking.

Nobody can navigate an airport like April Mae Manning. Her deceased father was a pilot, her mother is a flight attendant, and her “lying, greedy, odious sociopath” of a stepfather is a pilot. With her mother in Atlanta and her stepfather in LA, MacGyver-loving April has logged some serious miles as an unaccompanied minor. Thanks to her insider knowledge, she can read a flight manifest and negotiate TSA lines like no ordinary civilian. This savvy stands her in good stead when she finds herself with best friend and fellow unaccompanied minor Malcolm, his emotional-support dog, a kindhearted cop escorting a crook and the crustiest flight attendant in history on an L-1011 with a bomb in its hold and a crew infiltrated with hijackers on board. The narrative takes the form of April’s report to the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board following the incident, and it’s laced with April’s trenchant commentary on the vagaries of family court and the inequities of the conditions of airline employment. Former flight attendant Gillespie’s insider knowledge infuses April’s account with confident authority. Her impeccable comic timing and command of April’s oh-so-15-year-old voice carry the plot through several unlikely but carefully laid-out contortions that will leave readers (and some of April’s friends) in stitches.

A high-sky winner all the way from coast to coast.