The Falling Woman

March 1, 2020

DEBUT National Transportation Safety Board investigator Charlie Radford gets his big break investigating the explosion of a passenger jet mid-flight over Kansas. But rumors of a lone survivor--the falling woman--might undermine his success. Erin Geraghty receives surprisingly good news about her cancer treatment, but cheating death--or at least postponing it--has not left her as elated as one might expect and she leaves her family to spend time at a cancer survivor retreat to think about her options. When she cheats death a second time by surviving a plane crash, she decides not to be found, and to die in peace. As Charlie seeks the truth, Erin works hard to avoid it. But maybe the two have more in common than they realize. VERDICT Former pilot Farrell's skillfully written story of hope, love, and regret contemplated amid a fast-paced, high-pressure major airline accident investigation will appeal to readers who enjoyed Michael Crichton's Airframe, Gregg Hurwitz's The Survivor, and Noah Hawley's Before the Fall.--George Lichman, Rocky River, OH

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March 15, 2020
An ambitious debut novel about a plane crash investigation and the solitary survivor of the deadly accident. Farrell tells two parallel stories that eventually intersect. Charlie Radford, who works for the National Transportation Safety Board, is on his first big assignment--probing the midair explosion of a passenger jet over southwestern Kansas. A would-be pilot grounded because of a heart condition, Charlie is anxious to prove himself and overcome feelings of inadequacy, engendered in part by his remote, alcoholic father. Erin Geraghty, a lawyer and mother of two, is chafing in a lackluster marriage (she's also having an affair) and dealing with a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. One day she boards a flight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco that never reaches its destination. The author is good at building suspense around the cause of the air disaster as well as the fate of its unlikely survivor--a woman passenger who apparently tumbled through the sky and landed in a barn. He's also good at describing the politics surrounding the investigation and the personalities of the NTSB team. A former pilot himself, he writes vividly, at times rhapsodically, about flying. Not so persuasive are his domestic scenes--for example, Charlie's dust-ups with his wife, Wendy, who desperately wants a baby (Charlie resists); and Erin's arguments with her lover, Adam, who presses her to reveal her identity as the "falling woman" (she demurs). Sole survivors of commercial plane crashes are not unheard of--the recent novel Dear Edward, about a young sole survivor, is based on a true story. Yet a number of plot points here strain credulity. And the musings on bravery, betrayal, the randomness of fate and the extraordinariness of the ordinary feel prosaic. Despite a promising premise, the book tries to do too much and never quite gets off the ground.

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April 1, 2020
It seemed impossible: the rumors about the falling woman, purported to be the only survivor of a plane crash over Kansas but who is nowhere to be found. Could she really have been thrown from the plane while buckled into her seat, crash-landed in a barn, and lived? The investigator assigned to find her, Charlie Radford, is not willing to give the rumors credibility. It's his first big investigation in the field after a heart condition stymied his dreams of becoming a pilot. But, as he will learn, the falling woman has had her own dreams carried away?in her case, by the ravages of cancer. Erin Geraghty was on her way to a retreat for cancer survivors when the plane crashed, suddenly opening the possibility of a new path forward with what remains of her life. As Charlie and Erin come closer to discovering the truth about what happened, and about each other, they hurtle toward a choice that will shape both of their lives. An intriguing story given weight by its examination of what it means to be faithful.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 11, 2020
In Farrell’s solid debut, Erin Geraghty is a married lawyer with children who is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. But she has bigger problems when her flight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco blows up in midair over Kansas, and she falls out of the sky and plummets into a barn—and inexplicably lives. Charlie Radford, a former pilot turned investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, is part of the team investigating the crash. As the search for clues about the explosion gets underway, Charlie keeps hearing stories about the miracle of the Falling Woman who survived the crash. Erin, having escaped from the hospital she was taken to, holes up at a lover’s cabin in the woods, hiding from her family, who doesn't know she survived the crash. Charlie’s growing obsession with identifying and locating Erin puts him in conflict with the other team members, who are under considerable pressure to find out what caused the plane to explode. Charlie and Erin’s stories ultimately converge to provide an emotionally satisfying climax. Charlie and Erin are vivid characters, even as the author saddles them with stock domestic problems such as a tepid sex life. Still, Farrell’s thoughtful novel calls to mind the heights of Rafael Yglesias’s Fearless.