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FLIGHT
by Adam Thorpe
Johnathan Cape, May 2012
400 pages
16.99 GBP
ISBN: 0224089013


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Pilot Bob Winrush has a cushy job in Dubai flying a rich sheikh around, but is fired when an Israeli journalist starts asking questions about a flight made two years earlier, when Bob was hauling freight. That particular job involved shipping arms to the Taliban, and reportedly heroin on the return flight. Bob pulled out of the job but is still associated with it, and attracts the interest of some serious men. He seeks to lower his profile by returning to the UK and staying off flight decks, but the deaths of other crew members and the journalist persuade him he is still at risk. Bob takes refuge in Scourlay in the Outer Hebrides hoping to drop off the radar, but it seems unlikely that he can stay hidden indefinitely, and any lapse in security could prove terminal.

Bob is around fifty, but keeps in shape through plenty of exercise, and, being a good-looking sort of guy with a ready supply of one-liners, is seemingly quite popular with women. He is in the throes of a divorce, which leaves him free to form relationships where he chooses, primarily with younger women. You get the feeling that he views himself as pretty damn cool. His flying history incorporated a number of years flying freight of a dubious nature, weaponry, anti-personnel mines, combatants, etc, and he thinks this is fine, not his job to question, and just wishes he had more of the brown envelopes of cash he received for such work. He comes over at times as somewhat juvenile and it can be difficult to sustain interest in his welfare.

The logic of the story a little tenuous. It is never exactly clear who is behind the attempts to silence the crew or why they might want to do it, and even at the end the resolution seems a little provisional. At the same time one character seems a prime candidate for skulduggery and it is frustrating when this becomes obvious about 150 pages before the penny drops for the protagonist.

Also, the book is not free from errors. Bob's Scourlay bolt-hole belongs to a sufferer from advanced Parkinsonism, for whom a friend of Bob's is executor. No one wanted to buy it; 'as executor he wasn't allowed to drop the price below the market value'. This is incorrect. An executor is appointed when someone is dead, not before, and market value by definition is what someone can be found to pay. Misspellings of place names do not engender confidence, either.

On a more positive note, story developments are fast-paced, the characters are mostly believable and the dialogue spare and fairly slick. The combination of flying escapades, guns and young attractive women will certainly appeal to many readers.

§ Chris Roberts is a retired manager of shopping centres in Hong Kong, and now lives in Bristol, primarily reading.

Reviewed by Chris Roberts, May 2012

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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