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THE FALLING WOMAN

Name: THE FALLING WOMAN
Author: Richard Farrell
ISBN: 978-1-61620-857-8

by Richard Farrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2020

Despite a promising premise, the book tries to do too much and never quite gets off the ground.

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An ambitious debut novel about a plane crash investigation and the solitary survivor of the deadly accident.

Farrell tells two parallel stories that eventually intersect. Charlie Radford, who works for the National Transportation Safety Board, is on his first big assignment—probing the midair explosion of a passenger jet over southwestern Kansas. A would-be pilot grounded because of a heart condition, Charlie is anxious to prove himself and overcome feelings of inadequacy, engendered in part by his remote, alcoholic father. Erin Geraghty, a lawyer and mother of two, is chafing in a lackluster marriage (she’s also having an affair) and dealing with a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. One day she boards a flight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco that never reaches its destination. The author is good at building suspense around the cause of the air disaster as well as the fate of its unlikely survivor—a woman passenger who apparently tumbled through the sky and landed in a barn. He’s also good at describing the politics surrounding the investigation and the personalities of the NTSB team. A former pilot himself, he writes vividly, at times rhapsodically, about flying. Not so persuasive are his domestic scenes—for example, Charlie’s dust-ups with his wife, Wendy, who desperately wants a baby (Charlie resists); and Erin’s arguments with her lover, Adam, who presses her to reveal her identity as the “falling woman” (she demurs). Sole survivors of commercial plane crashes are not unheard of—the recent novel Dear Edward, about a young sole survivor, is based on a true story. Yet a number of plot points here strain credulity. And the musings on bravery, betrayal, the randomness of fate and the extraordinariness of the ordinary feel prosaic.

Despite a promising premise, the book tries to do too much and never quite gets off the ground.

Pub Date: May 19, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-61620-857-8

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Algonquin

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.