![\"flight\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flight.jpg\")
<\/a>Chris Bohjalian is one of my favorite contemporary authors, not only because he\u2019s a good writer, but also because his books are so diverse. I have not read all his 20 novels, but I\u2019ve enjoyed every one I have come across. He cannot be accused of formulaic writing.<\/p>\nThis one is an up-to-the-minute story that fits more or less into the broad thriller\/suspense\/mystery genre. It\u2019s also a book that ultimately addresses questions as to whether some people are beyond redemption.<\/p>\n
This is the story of Cassandra Bowden, a flight attendant with a major airline. Cassie, we quickly learn, has a serious drinking problem. She\u2019s nearing 40, still good looking, still able to do her job, but she frequently drinks to the point of blacking out, and she often wakes up hung over, in bed with a strange man, or trying to recall what went on with a man who\u2019s no longer in evidence. Often, she\u2019s disgusted with herself, but not enough to change her ways.<\/p>\n
Cassie seems to be heading for disaster, and hardly has this book begun than she finds it. She wakes up in a hotel room in Dubai that\u2019s not the one the airline booked for its crew. Fighting her headache and other consequences of the previous night\u2019s excesses, she looks at the man in bed beside her \u2013 and finds that he\u2019s dead, his throat cut, blood everywhere.<\/p>\n
What to do? There\u2019s no way Cassie wants to wind up in jail in Dubai, or even dealing with the legal system there, so she begins what will become a spiraling pattern of cover-up and lies.<\/p>\n
At several points, she considers admitting what\u2019s happened, calling the U.S. Embassy, doing something that most people would consider right. But always, she talks herself out of it.<\/p>\n
She lies to the others on the flight crew. She lies to the FBI when they meet the plane in New York. She lies to the airline union\u2019s representative, who tries to help her. She lies to herself, too.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s not even really sure that she didn\u2019t kill the man herself, and if she didn\u2019t, who did? And why did the murderer spare her?<\/p>\n
But things keep getting more complicated, more ominous, and soon she\u2019s seeking the help of a lawyer.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more to Cassie\u2019s self-destructive behavior than just binge drinking and sleeping around, however. Sometimes, even when sober, she makes reckless decisions and does what seems like the worst possible thing.<\/p>\n
Soon, she\u2019s exasperating her lawyer and others who try to help her, and in the process, she exasperates the reader, too.<\/p>\n
I sometimes have trouble sticking with a book in which I don\u2019t much care for or about the protagonist, and I began to think I might abandon Cassie and her story.<\/p>\n
Even Bohjalian doesn\u2019t seem to like her much, and he, too, seems impatient with her. She\u2019s a drunk, a liar and a petty thief without a lot of redeeming qualities, although she does genuinely care about her sister\u2019s children and the stray cats at the animal shelter.<\/p>\n
But Bohjalian is a very good writer, and there was always something there \u2013 the mystery, what would happen, what was really going on \u2013 to keep me going. There\u2019s the Russian factor: Who is this woman calling herself Miranda who showed up at the hotel room during the drunken night before the murder, and who is Viktor? What was the man Cassie found dead in bed with her really doing?<\/p>\n
Is Cassie right to think she\u2019s being watched and followed in New York?<\/p>\n
In the end, I was glad I\u2019d kept going. Bohjalian accomplishes the feat of delivering more than one twist that will have your head reeling, even as you say, \u201cOf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audio version makes good use of three readers, one for Cassie\u2019s parts of the story, one for those seen through the eyes of \u201cMiranda,\u201d and one for the FBI reports. In spite of yourself, in spite of Cassie, the story draws you in.<\/p>\n
This is not one of my favorites of Bohjalian\u2019s many accomplished novels, but it\u2019s certainly one that\u2019s worth a listen or a read.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT. By Chris Bohjalian. Random House Audio. Read by Erin Spencer and Grace Experience, with Mark Deakins. 11 \u00bd hours; 9 CDs. $40. Also available in print form Doubleday. Chris Bohjalian is one of my favorite contemporary authors, not only because he\u2019s a good writer, but also because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-books","category-thriller-suspense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2285,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions\/2285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}