Falling T. J. Newman

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don't know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot's family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

T.J. Newman is a former independent bookseller turned flight attendant who wrote much of Falling on red-eye flights while her passengers slept. The novel grew out of a diabolical question the author once asked a pilot: What would you do if terrorists kidnapped your family and told you that if you did not crash this plane, your wife and children would be killed?

It begins like any other flight from Los Angeles to New York for veteran pilot Bill Hoffman and the 144 crew and passengers of Coastal Airways Flight 416. But minutes after takeoff, Bill receives an unexpected video call in the cockpit. It's from a terrorist on the ground who has invaded his home and taken his wife and children hostage, while also wiring the house with explosives. His only demand: Bill must either crash the plane or watch his family be killed. If he tells his copilot, his family will be killed. If he tells the crew, his family will be killed. If he attempts to contact the authorities, his family will be killed. And there's this: One of the passengers on the plane is a terrorist in disguise who is there to keep an eye on Bill and make sure he follows orders.

Bill's response? I'm not going to crash this plane. And you're not going to kill my family.

High-concept, full-throttle fiction, that reads like watching Die Hard or Speed. The author's experience as a flight attendant and extensive professional training for hijackings, mid-air disasters, and every imaginable emergency on board means she brings an authority to the story that no other writer could.

After the author was furloughed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, T.J. Newman finally completed her manuscript. It was plucked from her agent's slush pile and then acquired by the first and only editor to whom it was submitted.

Film rights have already been purchased by Universal after a 14-way bidding war between Hollywood studios.

About the author:

T. J. Newman is a former bookseller turned flight attendant, who worked for Virgin America and Alaska Airlines from 2011 to 2021. She wrote much of Falling on cross-country red-eye flights while her passengers were asleep. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Falling is her first novel.

Falling
T.J. Newman
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9781398507258
RRP: $29.99