Wednesday 22 May 2019

Book ~ "Freefall" (2019) Jessica Barry

From Goodreads ~ When her fiancé’s private plane crashes in the Colorado Rockies, Allison Carpenter miraculously survives. But the fight for her life is just beginning. Allison has been living with a terrible secret, a shocking truth that powerful men will kill to keep buried. If they know she’s alive, they will come for her. She must make it home.

In the small community of Owl Creek, Maine, Maggie Carpenter learns that her only child is presumed dead. But authorities have not recovered her body - giving Maggie a shred of hope. She, too, harbors a shameful secret: she hasn’t communicated with her daughter in two years, since a family tragedy drove Allison away. Maggie doesn’t know anything about her daughter’s life now - not even that she was engaged to wealthy pharmaceutical CEO Ben Gardner or why she was on a private plane.

As Allison struggles across the treacherous mountain wilderness, Maggie embarks on a desperate search for answers. Immersing herself in Allison’s life, she discovers a sleek socialite hiding dark secrets. What was Allison running from - and can Maggie uncover the truth in time to save her?

Ben, the wealthy CEO of a pharmaceutical company, is flying his small plane home to San Diego from Chicago with his fiancée, Allison.  The plane crashes in the Rockies ... Ben is dead and Allison survives, though she is pretty banged up.  Allison has knowledge of something that she will probably be killed for so she knows she has to getting moving before anyone finds her.

Back home in Maine, Maggie, Allison's mother, is notified of the crash and that her daughter is presumed dead and her body must have been burnt in the wreckage.  Maggie won't truly be convinced of Allison's death until her body is found.  She and Allison had been estranged for the last two years so Maggie doesn't know anything about her current life, including being engaged to and living with Ben.

I thought this had an interesting writing style and it worked for me.  It's written in two voices ... Allison's and Maggie's, with the chapters alternating (they are labeled) ... both are written in first person perspective.  As a head's up, there is swearing.

Allison's story begins with the crash and her journey to get down the mountain to safety.  In addition, there are flashbacks to her life in San Diego so we get to know how she ended up engaged to Ben and in the plane.  Maggie's story begins when she learns from her long-time friend, Jim, who is a police officer about Allison's crash.  She then sets out to learn all she can about Allison's new life.

I liked the story.  It was a bit farfetched at times but I went with it ... like when Allison bought a car without having any ID or when someone gives Allison a drive into a town and puts her up in a hotel room, despite her being bloody, dirty and smelly.

And I found it odd that Allison, when she thought her mother was danger, drove thousands of miles home to Maine rather than calling, Jim, the family friend who is a police officer who lives practically next door to Maggie. 

I found it a bit naïve on the author's part to assume that almost everyone who is OLD like Maggie (she was only about sixty!) wouldn't know how to navigate a computer and the Internet.  Really!?

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