★ 05/31/2021
Soon after Coastal Airways captain Bill Hoffman, the hero of former flight attendant Newman’s superlative debut, is airborne on a flight from Los Angeles to JFK Airport, he gets a blank email from his wife, Carrie. The attached photo shows her and their 10-year-old son, Scott, standing in their living room, their faces covered with hoods and bombs strapped to their bodies. Then he gets a FaceTime call from Saman Khani, who presents the pilot with a choice: Bill must crash the plane, or the terrorist will kill Carrie, Scott, and Elise, the Hoffmans’ baby. Telling anyone of the situation or sending anyone to the house will ensure their deaths. Determined to avoid choosing between the lives of his loved ones and those of his crewmates and the 144 passengers on the flight, Bill must use all his experience and smarts to achieve that impossible goal by trying to get help to his family via a crew member who has a trusted relative in the FBI and by taking the flight attendants into his confidence. Newman makes buy-in to the setup easy by ensuring every character, including Khani, is multidimensional. This tense, convincing thriller marks the arrival of an assured new talent. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (July)
#1 Indie Next Pick
Amazon Best Books of the Month
Apple Best Books of the Month
LibraryReads Best Books of the Month
Good Morning America Buzz Pick of the Week
Named a most anticipated book of summer by dozens of outlets including USA Today, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Hollywood Reporter, CrimeReads, Goodreads, and more.
Named a Best Book of the Year (So Far) by USA Today and Esquire.
“The splashiest book debut of the summer.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“The thriller of the summer.”
—Dallas Morning News
“An unputdownable thriller that will take you on a wild ride full of twists and suspense.”
—Good Morning America
“Summer’s big thriller . . . The frenzy for Falling is understandable: At every turn, Newman cranks the tension in unexpected ways that still satisfy the thriller lust. Her insider’s knowledge comes through in details that not only bolster the book’s credibility but also catalyze the plot.”
—Margaret Wappler, Los Angeles Times
“Terrifying . . . Buckle up for a chilling summer read.”
—People (Best Books of the Week)
“A rich and assured debut . . . Emotionally complex in surprising and refreshing ways . . . Falling is expertly paced—if you were to begin reading this book at LAX, you’d finish it right as you began your descent into JFK.”
—USA Today (3.5 out of 4 stars)
“A white-knuckle thrill ride.”
—Newsweek
“One of the most talked-about debuts of the year. Like all good thrillers, Falling gets off to a dramatic start and maintains its momentum . . . Newman’s various narrative strands resemble high-voltage live wires. One tense predicament replaces another, from poison gas attacks to mutinous passengers to orders to kill the co-pilot or shoot down the plane. The suspense is heightened by the fact that the terrorist is not open to negotiation.”
—Malcolm Forbes, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“The summer’s buzziest beach read.”
—Los Angeles Magazine
“Bound for JFK out of LAX, pilot Bill Hoffman has no idea he’s about to be given a choice: Either crash the plane or his family will be murdered. The author, a former bookseller and flight attendant, seems to think of everything — every trick, every error, every advantage — in a plot that executes more barrel rolls than a stunt plane on the Fourth of July.”
—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“One of the year’s best thrillers . . . This novel is like the films Die Hard and Speed on steroids . . . Newman keeps up an extreme pace from the first page.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“Brilliant . . . Incredibly suspenseful . . . With abundantly human characters, natural dialogue, and a plot that unleashes one surprise after another, this could be the novel that everyone is talking about this summer.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“A superlative debut . . . This tense, convincing thriller marks the arrival of an assured new talent.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“High-octane drama . . . Newman’s background means Falling brings a freshness and depth to the genre. While the story is propelled by the impossible situation Bill and his captive family find themselves in, at its heart is the relationship between the tight-knit crew. . . . It’s an eye-opening look into the reality of working on a plane.”
—The Guardian
“Attention, please: T. J. Newman has written the perfect thriller! Such a cool, high-concept idea: commercial airline pilot forced to make the ultimate life-or-death choice. Newman’s background in the air grounds the story in reality, while her writing amps up the suspense to unbearable levels. Terrific and terrifying, a true page-turner. A must-read for summer vacation—but my advice is, don't start this book until you’ve gotten off the plane.”
—Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
“Falling is the best kind of thriller (for me as a reader anyway). Characters you care deeply about. Nonstop, totally authentic suspense.”
—James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“T. J. Newman has taken a brilliant idea, a decade of real-life experience, and crafted the perfect summer thriller. Relentlessly paced and unforgettable.”
—Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Amazing . . . Intense suspense, shocks and scares plus chilling insider authenticity make this one very special.”
—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A bullet train of a thriller with incredible tension and personal stakes. The real engine of this stunning and relentless book is how far would you go to save your family? I read Falling with my heart in my throat—this is Jaws at 35,000 feet. An extraordinary debut and the perfect summer page-turner.”
—Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Force and The Cartel
“Heart pounding. Heart wringing. Heart STOPPING! A great book! One of those where you’re afraid to turn the next page, but you can’t stop.”
—Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series
“Think Speed on a passenger jet—with the cockpit dials turned up to supersonic.”
—Ian Rankin, #1 internationally bestselling author
“Buckle up for a completely original edge-of-your-seat thriller that will keep you guessing until the final nail-biting pages. Save your family or save the hundred passengers who have put their lives in your hands. You cannot save both. T. J. Newman’s chilling novel stayed with me long after I finished reading it. This is the best thriller I’ve read in years.”
—Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain
“A jet-propelled thriller that will have you in its grip from first page to last. A truly astonishing debut and an incredible work of pure suspense.”
—Steve Cavanagh, #1 bestselling author of the Eddie Flynn series
“Falling redefines the phrase roller-coaster ride. It redefines the term edge-of-your-seat thriller. Falling is that rarest of things, a book that is even better than everyone says it is. T. J. Newman has delivered a stunning debut.”
—Dervla McTiernan, #1 internationally bestselling author
Narrator Steven Weber keeps the tension high in this debut thriller written by a former flight attendant. A plane has been hijacked. Bill, the pilot, is faced with a choice: Crash the plane, or his wife and two children will be murdered. The story jumps around from the plane to the kidnapper holding Bill’s family to events in the past that shaped the characters. Weber sounds authoritative as Bill speaks to his passengers and keeps his emotions in check as he develops a plan to ensure the safety of his family and those on the flight. Sam, the terrorist, is driven by revenge. In spite of some holes in plot and character development, Weber fully delivers the chills in this audiobook. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Narrator Steven Weber keeps the tension high in this debut thriller written by a former flight attendant. A plane has been hijacked. Bill, the pilot, is faced with a choice: Crash the plane, or his wife and two children will be murdered. The story jumps around from the plane to the kidnapper holding Bill’s family to events in the past that shaped the characters. Weber sounds authoritative as Bill speaks to his passengers and keeps his emotions in check as he develops a plan to ensure the safety of his family and those on the flight. Sam, the terrorist, is driven by revenge. In spite of some holes in plot and character development, Weber fully delivers the chills in this audiobook. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-08-18
Terrorist to pilot: Crash the plane and kill everyone aboard, or your family will die.
That's the choice that faces pilot Bill Hoffman after he is FaceTimed in the cockpit of Coastal Airways Flight 416 by a man who has his wife, son, and infant daughter bound, gagged, and strapped with suicide bombs—a man he believed was a cable repairman when he left the house on his way to work. "I’m not going to crash this plane and you’re not going to kill my family," Hoffman bravely replies—but it's clearly going to take some doing. This authentically detailed and unquestionably thrilling thriller is the debut novel of a bookseller-turned–flight attendant–turned-novelist. Newman uses her background to great advantage in portraying her three flight attendants—a Black woman named Jo, a tiny White guy they call Big Daddy, and a newbie still on probation, Kellie. From their intuitive evaluations of the passengers as they board to their collaborative problem-solving style to little details like how they funnel leftover first-class meals to the pilots, these characters give the high-flying heroics of the plot a grounding in reality. Air traffic controllers and pilots are also depicted with veracity and respect. On the other hand, the FBI agents are two-dimensional, and the characterization of the villains is a serious flaw. Casting Middle Eastern men as terrorists crashing planes is dated and reactionary at this point, even if the word Islam is not mentioned once and the characters explicitly reject jihadism. These guys' avenging rage has its roots in the horror of the U.S. withdrawal from Kurdistan and the American public's complete lack of interest, but this is not enough to rescue this racist stereotype.
An exciting story with great details, lots of action, and an unfortunately problematic premise.
