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HUMAN ERROR

Name: HUMAN ERROR
Author: Tom Casey
ISBN: 0-312-14622-1

by Tom Casey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1996

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Breakdowns in personal relationships and the possibility of lapses in judgment by those at the controls of high-tech jetliners provide some engrossing conflicts in a first-rate debut novel from pilot Casey, now a captain with American Airlines. Nation Air Lines Flight 555 is bound from New York to Paris on a stormy night when Captain Hugo Price, confronted with indications of an engine problem and reports of turbulent weather over the North Atlantic, makes a command decision to take the jetliner back to JFK. On its final approach, however, Flight 555 slams into the rain-swept runway from an altitude of 50 feet, and 45 of 192 passengers lose their lives. Seriously injured himself, Hugo has plenty of time to reflect on whether the fatal accident was at least partially his fault. He also ponders a failed marriage to the vindictive Lydia, and the agreeable romance he's having with Sarah McClure, who was serving as his first officer the night of the wreck. Meantime, federal investigators are delving into the causes of the crash while a host of interested parties—the carrier, its vendors, Hugo's union, regulators, and ground personnel—maneuver to limit their liabilities. Although absorbingly detailed testimony at a formal NTSB inquiry suggests that an unusual mechanical failure and wind shear were the principal reasons for the crackup, Hugo's private affairs are subjected to indecently close examination; in the wake of the hearing, the FAA grounds him for six months on a technicality. Shortly before his suspension is to end, though, he satisfies Nation's chief pilot that he's fit to fly again during a dramatic simulator session. Concurrently, he endures yet another proceeding, one that makes hateful Lydia the ex-Mrs. Price and allows Hugo to make a fresh start with Sarah. A smooth flight of fancy for Casey, who displays a real flair for portraying mistake-prone adults facing the consequences of their actions in the air and on the ground.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-312-14622-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).

Pub Date: July 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-345-45071-X

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002

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.