Airframe

Written by Michael Crichton

When I first started reading this novel, something about it felt suspiciously familiar. But since there are a slew of plane-crash disaster stories out there, I figured maybe I'd read something similar once. About halfway through, though, I realized that I had read this book, or at least part of it, maybe ten years ago. The details were hazy in my memory, and I don't think I ever finished it. Which should have been a warning sign. It's a pretty slow, lackluster story.

In a nutshell: a flight from Hong Kong to Denver unexpectedly starts "porpoising" — pitching violently up and then down several times. End result: four people dead, 56 injured. Casey Singleton, a nice, wholesome midwestern type who has managed to make her way to a VP position at Norton aircraft (the builder of the plane), is assigned the duty of investigating what went wrong. While she's unraveling the myriad of details related to the accident, a bitter labor dispute is brewing, and an investigative news program is trying to expose Norton as a negligent, money-hungry corporate beast that has no regard for passenger safety.

Really cool elements:

• I loved the way Crichton makes fun of the media. The television people in this story are of the "60 Minutes" variety. Crichton has some fun developing their characters as shallow, finger-pointing monsters who are only interested in sensationalizing the accident for the sake of their ratings.

Not-so-cool elements:

• There was an awful lot of technical detail, without much explanatory help for those of us who don't build or service airplanes. Lots of acronyms too (which I'm sure is reflective of real life in the airplane-building industry). Maybe I'm just not enough of a gearhead to get my brain around all the details, but I found it easy to get bogged down.
• Some of the subplots just end up going nowhere. For example, in the first half of the book, some of Norton's union thugs are out to get Casey; the company even assigns 24-hour bodyguards to trail her every move. But we never find out anything concrete about the thugs who lurk in the dark hangar corners, and we never hear any more about the guards (wouldn't they kind of have an impact on her daily life?)
• The ending really lacked punch. After 350 pages, I felt like I deserved a much more exciting explanation for why the plane nosedived.

3rd Degree

Written by James Patterson and Andrew Gross

Could someone please explain to me why I still read James Patterson? I guess you either love him or you hate him, and believe me, based on the last Patterson book I read, I was hesitant to start this one. But so many of his novels get such good reviews, I thought I'd give him another try.

This book was one of several I picked up at the Dexter Library's used book sale as potential reading material for my spring backpacking trip to the Smokies. Being an aspiring ultralight backpacker, I wanted a very light read — and I do mean that literally. This one made the cut because it weighed a few ounces less than the other options, according to the scale on my kitchen counter.

The story: Police Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer just happens to be jogging by a house as it blows up. She runs inside to perform a heroic rescue and then is the only one smart enough to figure out that a red backpack placed suspiciously near the house is connected to the bombing. (None of the fire/rescue/police personnel even notice this.) In the ensuing days, several related homicides follow, all linked by melodramatic messages from a mysterious perpetrator self-named "August Spies." One victim happens to be a close friend of Linday's; and since another friend of hers just happens to be the medical examiner, Lindsay stands around watching the autopsy. (Are you getting the feeling this story is slightly unrealistic? Wait, there's more.) Lindsay singlehandedly figures out the identity of the murderer, makes all the necessary arrests, and pretty much carries the world on her shoulders while still finding time to chat it up with her girlfriends at the coffee shop and snag the hottie from the Department of Homeland Security who swoops in from Washington to help with the case.

Not-so-cool elements:

• All the main characters in this book are female. You might think that's kind of cool at first, in a "you go girl" sort of way. But within the first 10 or so pages, you realize it's all just a contrived, patronizing attempt by Patterson to cash in on the women's book clubs who might be drawn to absolutely outlandish girl-power dramas.
  
• This is a very predictable, made-for-TV-type novel. Both the story and the characters are flat and unrealistic. There is just nothing inventive here. When you're through, you'll feel like you just read a glammed-up Hardy Boys mystery.

Really cool elements:

• If you're looking for a quick no-brainer that you can read anywhere, anytime, and still follow the plot effortlessly despite distractions, this is the book for you. And actually, it served that purpose pretty well when I took it on my backpacking trip! I was able to pick it up briefly each evening after an exhausting day of hiking, and just veg out a little bit while reading. I know I'm being kind of hard on Patterson in some of my criticisms, but isn't there a time and a place for silly novels? I think so.
  
• At least it's a low-risk read. I spent a whopping fifty cents to purchase this book used. A quick search of Amazon.com shows 288 copies available for $.01 each. (Does that not send a certain message? Kinda like walking into a restaurant that's absolutely empty at 7 p.m. on a Friday night?)