Author T.J. Newman has become one of my favorites over the past few years. The former flight attendant writes books set in airplanes that are in distress. “Falling” features a pilot who has been ordered to crash his plane to save his family. “Drowning” features the struggle of a small group of survivors to get out of a plane that has crashed into the ocean. Both of these books were nail biters and I think I even lost a little bit of sleep trying to get through them! So you can imagine how excited I am for her recently released book, “Worst Case Scenario.” This book is about the aftermath of a plane crash into a nuclear power plant. That sounds intense! If you, like me, are looking forward to this read, but need something to tide you over until your hold comes in, here are some other intense tales of survival you won’t be able to put down.
“Hostage” by Clare Mackintosh is another book that takes place on a plane in peril. This one follows flight attendant Mina who, while on a 20-hour flight from London to Sydney, is given a note that indicates she must help hijackers crash the plane or her daughter will be killed. The book is written from multiple perspectives that introduce you to everyone on board the plane, as well as those on the ground who are affected by these events (notably Mina’s husband and daughter). Mackintosh’s writing is full of twists and turns that kept me guessing as to just who might be behind this nefarious plot.
If drama on a plane isn’t your thing, how about the rapids of a river flowing through the wilds of Maine? In “The River at Night” by Erika Ferencik, a girl’s trip goes terribly wrong when a group of friends find themselves stranded in the wilderness after losing their raft. Despite being in the wilderness, they do manage to run into people, but as you might suspect, these are not the types of folks you want to come across. Will the friends make it out of the wilderness alive?
And last, but certainly not least, is the intense “No Exit” by Taylor Adams. In this book, a young woman finds herself stranded at a remote highway rest stop during a blizzard in the Colorado mountains where she makes a horrific discovery — a young child is being held in a cage inside a van. She doesn’t know which of her fellow stranded travelers is the owner of the van, but she knows she must act. What follows are several tense hours as she attempts to save the child, even though she knows they are ultimately trapped with a very dangerous person.
Happy reading!
