Falling cover image

What the blurb says: “A plane falls out of the sky. A woman is murdered. Four people all have something to hide. Jim is a retired police officer, and a worried father. His beloved daughter has disappeared and he knows something is wrong. Tom has woken up to discover that his wife was on the plane and must break the news to their only son. Cecilia had packed up and left her family. Now she has survived a tragedy and sees no way out. Freya is struggling to cope with the loss of her father. But as she delves into his past, she may not like what she finds.”

This is another fantastic debut for 2014. Right from the start, this psychological thriller is high on tension and drama, plunging us – literally – into the free fall of Cecilia’s plane in the opening scene. Told through the eyes of the four main protagonists, the narrative circles around two seemingly unrelated incidents – the murder of a young woman, and the shocking crash of a passenger plane in a small community – but as the events leading up to both incidents are gradually revealed it becomes clear that the two tragedies might have more in common than it had originally appeared.

It’s an unsettling story, pitching the reader into the worlds of the four main characters and giving a close-up view of their failures and regrets, and how each of them, in their own way, is haunted by their past, and by the lies they tell themselves and others. But it’s also a redemption story – a journey of people facing their deepest fears, overcoming adversity and loss, and finding a way to move forward.

A thought provoking and emotive read that grips you from the first page to the last.

Highly recommended.

[with thanks to Arrow Books for my copy of Falling]