Drowning – T J Newman | Book Review | #Drowning | @T_J_Newman @simonschusterUK @RandomTTours | Thriller – the rescue of Flight 1421

Flight attendant turned New York Times bestselling author T. J. Newman – whose first book Falling was an instant international bestseller and the biggest thriller debut of 2021 – returns for her second book, an edge-of-your-seat thriller about a commercial jetliner that crashes into the ocean, and sinks to the bottom with passengers trapped inside, and the extraordinary rescue operation to save them.

Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside.

More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives.

Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent – Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife – who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff.

There’s not much time.
There’s even less air.

With devastating emotional power and heart-stopping suspense, Drowning is an unforgettable thriller about a family’s desperate fight to save themselves and the people trapped with them – against impossible odds.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: Ebook, audio, hardback (8 June 2023) | paperback to follow
Source: ecopy to review

MY THOUGHTS

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the invite and for the publisher for the ecopy to review.

Oh my, what a terrifying tension filled read this was. From the moment it became clear that passenger Flight 1421, just six minutes into its journey travelling from Honolulu to San Fransisco was going to crash into the Pacific Ocean, my nerves were in shreds and I worried whether I would ever travel by air again. I believe this will be made for film (together with the author’s previous book Falling) and its such a cinematic story, it absolutely deserves to be. It’s a disaster movie in literary form.

I’m not going into plot details for fear of spoilers but the diligent research into this is clear, from the technical descriptions and methods of rescue, to survival issues in the aftermath of the crash. Add in human emotions and feelings of love and loss and it becomes a heartrending emotional journey.

The main characters are superb – from Will, the engineer passenger travelling with his young daughter Shannon – at the age of just 11 she had such a wise head on her young shoulders; the crew of both the flight and the rescue teams including Will’s magnificent estranged wife Chris, a specialist diver who I had the most faith in to rescue the doomed survivors. There was a united heroic effort in extraordinarily difficult circumstances to try and save the passengers from certain death even when at times one step forward meant three steps back.

The suspense is immense. I have no fingernails left but Drowning is definitely recommended. I loved this story of resilience and of people pulling together against the odds. I do have the author’s previous book, Falling, on my Kindle which I’ve purchased but I need to steady my nerves before I can tackle that one!

T. J. Newman is a former bookseller and flight attendant whose first novel Falling became a publishing sensation and debuted at number two on the New York Times bestseller list. The book was named a best book of the year by USA TODAY and Esquire, among many others, and has been published in over thirty countries. The book will soon be a major motion picture from Universal Pictures. T. J. lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Drowning is her second novel.

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