The Falling Woman by Richard Farrell
Rating: ★★★☆☆

The Falling Woman by Richard Farrell was an interesting read, though it didn’t fully captivate me. The plot revolves around the mysterious circumstances of a plane crash and a woman who survives against all odds, which had a lot of potential. Farrell’s writing is strong, and the premise is intriguing, but the execution left something to be desired.

The characters, while well-developed, felt a bit distant, and I had trouble fully connecting with them. The pacing was uneven at times, with some parts dragging while others felt rushed. Overall, it’s a decent read with an intriguing concept, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Tense, thrilling, and deeply profound, The Falling Woman examines what it means to be singled out by luck or destiny. It explores what we owe to our loved ones in our final days, and what we owe ourselves.

It asks compelling and controversial questions about the value of life and what should be sacrificed in the name of love. The acute and macabre public fascination with commercial airplane crashes. And how traditional and social media sensationalizes events, often at the cost of the victim’s mental health.

When I read the synopsis of this book, I was intrigued! Someone surviving a midair explosion, named "The Falling Woman" but then goes missing!? Sounded amazing! While this had a great premise, I just couldn't get into the story and did not feel connected to the characters.

Thank you Netgalley, Algonquin Books and Richard Farrell for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

I was intrigued by the synopsis - midair explosion of a passenger jet and a possible survivor! However, such an interesting premise set my expectations too high and I got disappointed.

It goes over and over about Radford’s (National Transportation Safety Bureau agent) insecurities in his job and how he should approach the situation with The Falling Woman. He is also lost in his family life - his wife is asking for a child and he isn’t sure he could be a good father figure, he never has one himself. At the same time, Erin, The Falling Woman, does the same thing in the cabin of her lover - she succumbs to her loneliness and desperation in search of a new way of life.

Many important issues are raised in the novel - how to jungle a career and a family, how to accept a deadly diagnosis, how to behave in stressful situations and how to stay a decent human being in all that stumble. At the same time, I have always felt the constant mulling of two protagonists which didn’t ignite much interest.

I wish I’d enjoyed it more.

Can you imagine falling from a plane and surviving? Apparently it has happened. This book had me hooked. There was some thrill and mystery but at the same time was very thought provoking.

I am glad I am not planning on flying anytime soon.

I received an ebook of this read from @algonquinbooks. Thank you! All opinions are my own.

#thefallingwoman #bookreview

A woman falls from an airplane and disappears. It's Charlie Radford's job to find the woman, but he's merely a pawn in a political game. He's also struggling to come to terms with his wife's desire for a child. Meanwhile, Erin has reached a breaking point in her cancer treatment and in her personal life. She takes a cross-country trip to think things through and finds herself the sole miraculous survivor of a plane crash. To protect her family, she chooses to escape into solitude in the Virginia cabin of her ex-lover. Will Charlie be able to find the fallen woman or is she gone forever? Will Erin continue to find the life she craves?
This book is touted as "fast-paced and full of twists and surprises," but I found it quite boring. I didn't care whether Charlie found the Falling Woman or not. And while I sympathized with Erin, I didn't connect with her emotionally at all. The beginning of the book may have contributed to my dissatisfaction. The author introduces the falling woman then switches gears to Erin and Charlie, and I was confused about why he was talking about these two characters.
I did like the end where Charlie and Erin talked about the rewards and challenges of parenthood and the value of ordinary moments. So true!

This past weekend before I’d even picked up The Falling Woman by Richard Farrell, I read a New York Times article about Juliane Diller who, in 1971, fell two miles after the plane she was flying in broke apart in midair. She was saved by the cushioning of the dense Amazon canopy. So as I began reading The Falling Woman, I was aware that there was the possibility albeit miniscule that someone could survive falling to earth, if the circumstances were right.

Charlie Radford is looking for his break at NTSB. He is young, lacking in self-confidence, and chasing dreams of emulating his NTSB hero, a former fighter pilot who bucked the system but was excellent at his job. When a plane falls apart during a thunderstorm in Kansas, Charlie is sent there, certain that this could be the break he is looking for.

Erin Geraghty just received news that her pancreatic cancer has stalled. That should be good news, except that her death is a certainty, it’s just been put off for a bit. But she’s tired of the fight, tired of feeling like a former human being so she signs up for a cancer survivor’s retreat in San Francisco, hoping that a week away from everything would renew her. During the flight, Erin’s seat breaks away from the plane and she is falling. She survives but has she?

I am used to reading procedural mysteries in which a detective sorts through evidence in a logical manner and is forthright with the reader. After the rumor of a plane survivor comes to light, I found the reactions of the NTSB agents to be peculiar. None of them wanted to follow up the story. Even Charlie, the protagonist, waffles and walks away, which just struck me as odd. Isn’t this part of the job? Immediately interviewing a possible survivor regardless of whether they could or could not provide information on the crash? Is this the millennial work ethic in practice? His fear is that if he follows the lead, he will be a laughing stock. So? was my reaction. However, I suppose this was a plot device to allow the woman in question the time to disappear from the hospital. The next step in my mind was that Charlie would have taken the photos for those women whose bodies had not been identified yet and immediately ask the nurses and anyone else who had come into contact with her. I waited for about forty pages for this to happen. When it finally did, it tested my credulity. No nurse recognized this woman’s face in any of the photos? Knowing nurses, I found that hard to believe. Suffice to say, that at times I had issues with the way this investigation into the Falling Woman was handled and the lackluster way in which the Charlie et al moved forward.

The best part of the novel for me was when Charlie finds Erin. The resulting conversations, Charlie’s attempt to understand why Erin wants to continue to be “dead” in the eyes of the world is some spell-binding stuff. Farrell writes the heck out of some of these passages. And the last question that Erin answers, that ends the book, is some of the best writing I’ve read in a long time. Amazing.

Straight-forward, lawyer-like, and completely human with all that entails, Erin was the most interesting character to me. She was not immediately a likable character, prickly and demanding at first, but she was the one I wanted to know more about. Her world-view and actions were compelling and I wish we had seen more of her after the plane crash. On the other hand, Charlie and his wife Wendy drove me nuts as they appeared to me to be weak and whiny and self-focused. Only one (extremely major) action on his part slightly redeemed him in my eyes

The Falling Woman is a novel that asks questions and I suspect that it will raise many too, making it a perfect novel for book clubs. What do we owe the people who love us? What does it mean to really live? How intertwined should work and life be?

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

On the surface, this is a mystery, delving into how one woman could survive a catastrophic plane accident. However, it’s really a thoughtful examination of how our present choices are shaped by our past and our unique circumstances. As is repeated by the investigative team in charge of researching the crash, only by asking the right questions will we become aware of the answer. The author’s expansive knowledge of flight and the NTSB gives the story an air of credibility, highlighting the behind the scenes red tape and politics that drive many of the decisions. In addition to these institutional stumbling blocks, both the main characters are driven by an internal pressure towards their own desired outcomes, their interests often not aligning, creating tension across the pages.
There were moments when each of the main characters frustrated me (and I’m including Wendy here since she plays a major part in influencing Charlie’s life and his feelings of guilt for often putting his work ahead of his family life). They each had a single-minded focus that seemed to dull out the needs and desires of others around them, making it at times difficult to sympathize with their plights. Unexpectedly, Erin became the one I felt most drawn to her as her reasoning is further explained. Taken out of context, her decision seems incomprehensible, but that’s before taking a 3-D look at her life and having an intimate understanding of how her choices have already taken her loved ones into account.
This would be a fantastic choice for a book club as it is filled with questions of ethics and how to balance what is best for yourself against what is best for others.
Thank you to Algonquin Books for a complimentary copy. This did not impact my review.

I picked this up after DNFing quite a few books and I was just hoping for one book to actually keep my attention. This one did it.

From the start, the premise is interesting. A woman may have survived when the plane she was on exploded over Kansas and now NTSB must search for clues on where she is and what happened to the plane.

Erin, the 'Falling Woman', as journalists have taken to calling her, has mysteriously disappeared after being taken to the hospital and she doesn't want to be found. She doesn't want her family to know she is alive, and she just wants to hang out with the man she had an affair with in a cabin while ignoring all responsibilities.

Erin had been on her way to a cancer survivor retreat in California when the plane exploded over Kansas and then the NTSB agent that wants to prove himself must find her, even when she doesn't want to be found.

Weaknesses for me on this one: Erin may be battling cancer, but I feel no sympathy for her. Also, one of the men on the NTSB team was an absolute pain to read with how arrogant he was.

I really enjoyed learning about people that have actually survived similar experiences.

I don't recommend picking this up if you're about to fly for a trip or fly for anything, but I do recommend picking up for a quick weekend read.

You'll be hooked from the start!

While I found the premise interesting the actual story fell flat. The alternating perspective caused the pace to feel slower. There was also too much back story which made the story slower than it needed to be.

Tough Choices. Great Debut. This is a solidly written, compelling story that is a tremendous debut book. Farrell manages to use a miracle during a disaster to show that miracles... are not always that... while also showing just how complicated and messy real life is in oh so many ways. The mystery is solid enough to keep the reader invested, and then the action kicks into high gear a bit as things begin to unravel. Finally, a choice is made in an instant that will affect numerous lives - and Farrell shows all of this with remarkable reality. The overall style and tone won't necessarily be exactly to everyone's liking, but stick around - the book really is very, very good. Very much recommended.

The Falling Woman by Richard Farrell quickly becomes more of a puzzle than a mystery, but Farrell cares about his character and your reading experience! The best part of this book is Farrell's attention to detail and the crafting of scenes surrounding the airplane crash. The reader knows from the bio that Farrell is an expert in the field of aviation, but he has a deft touch to making this career come alive with politics and intrigue! The novel may crawl a bit during Erin's scenes as they lack the urgency and nuanced sustained in the investigation scenes piloted by Charles Radford. We quickly learn who the falling woman is and we find out that this freak accident means more to her than a random victim of this crash. She has secrets and desires she'd like to hide from her family, from the media, from Charles as he tries to find her. Readers who like puzzles and the light touch of thrillers will enjoy this book!

The set up of The Falling Woman by Richard Farrell suggests philosophical musings and epiphanies about life. This character driven novel ends up more about the issue of privacy and politics. The most interesting aspect about this character driven book is that I enjoy the story although I do not care for either of the main characters. At the end, the book's premise is intriguing. The story keeps me reading until the end, but I leave not fully satisfied, looking for something more.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2021/05/the-falling-woman.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher's blog tour.

{3.5 stars}

“He’s trying to explain why the sky is inside him. If they mined down into his soul, they would find wings.  The sky runs through him, into places of himself he still hasn’t mapped. A calling, perhaps, the way a priest is called, or like the great passion of lovers ...  The airplane expanded the human imagination, Took us into places that we’d only dreamed about since we first stood erect and told stories. Radford has been more faithful to the sky than to anyone or anything he’s ever loved.”

————————————

I picked this story up expecting thriller but what I got was a real page turner about the meaning of life and the importance of fulfillment. The book is about plane crash… And there are lots of graphic details about the crash and its aftermath. But the book is actually about two people who’s unfulfilled lives are brought together by the crash. 

Charlie is a plane crash investigator who is obsessed with flying. All of the passages about him and his love for the sky enraptured me. As someone who loves to fly I got right in his head and loved the prose about flying. I also really liked that his drive to be successful and find the truth was tempered by his humanity and growing emotions about the people around him.

Erin, to me is a wholly unlikable character and while I understood need need for her in the story… I just did not understand her life choices. But they need for me to understand how these two characters fit together and what happened in the plane crash kept me turning the pages.

The ending was not what I hoped for… But I enjoyed the journey.

Thanks to Algonquin books for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.

THE FALLING WOMAN is a suspenseful debut about a woman rumored to have survived the midair explosion of a passenger jet. as a National Transportation Safety Board agent, Charlie is tasked with finding out if there’s any truth to this rumor. as the story unfolds we learn about the lives of both Charlie and The Falling Woman as the book explores themes of uncertainty, identity, and the power that our choices hold in the lives of ourselves and those around us. this would be an interesting one to discuss in a book club setting, as readers may feel strongly one way or the other about how everything comes together in the end. 3.5/5⭐️—it was good!

Thanks to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for a free book in exchange for an honest review.

An NTSB investigator, frustrated with his work and life. A woman dying of cancer. A plane crash over rural Kansas with no survivors...or were there? Who is the Falling Woman? Is it just a rumor...?

This compelling debut novel opens with a breathtaking, stomach-churning scene: a woman literally falling from the sky.

Charlie Radford is a young NTSB investigator sent to help with the identification of passengers. A seasoned investigator tells him, "Investigating a crash is one part archaeology, one part guesswork, and one part origami." After hearing rumors of a possible survivor, Charlie is hesitant to believe, but also curious and wanting to make a name for himself in the NTSB.

"Ask the right questions. You're never smarter than the evidence."

Erin Geraghty is a middle-aged lawyer in a lifeless marriage, with twin daughters away at college, who receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. She decides to travel to a cancer patient retreat, leaving behind her family. At the airport, despite her despondency, she is seized with feelings of deep gratitude and joy while waiting to board her flight. She seems to be coming to terms with her illness and impending death.

" We're all running from something...if you've stopped running from something, you've probably stopped living."
"Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light."

This book delves into questions about privacy, family, parenting, tragedy, and the right to control your own story. I enjoyed the character development and how Charlie's story and Erin's story intersected. There was not much mystery, but the story definitely had an intriguing premise and the writing was excellent.

First published in June 2020, The Falling Woman is now available in paperback.

3.5 stars

Compelling and off-kilter, this novel was a very quick read. But I wanted more as a mystery reader?

Writing: ★★★★
Concept: ★★★★★
Mystery elements: ★★
Conclusion: ★★

This is another one of those books where I have to preface my review and say "oh hey, it was me again—I thought this book would be something else. Whoops!" That doesn't happen too often these days as I'm getting better and better at figuring out my own reading preferences... but clearly there are still some one-offs that sneak past my radar.

I was looking for a more standard whodunit, complete with a detective, a perpetrator, and a solution. The Falling Woman is more lyrical than that, and less tied to those rules and regulations. This is a novel about humanity, struggle, and what we do when faced with impossibilities.

It's a beautiful novel in it's own way.

At first it's just a rumor. A woman survived a mid-air plane explosion? Impossible. Literally, unbelievable. But the rumor grows, and soon the investigators in charge of explaining the plane crash take a leap into the impossible - maybe the "falling woman" is real. And if so, how exactly did she survive?

Plane crash investigator Charlie Ranford is on the case. Well, he's mostly on the case. Okay, partially on the case. He doesn't exactly want to be on the case, but that's the way it is, alright? (Charlie is a very contradictory, anxiety-ridden personality. It's a little exhausting.)

A reluctant advocate for the "Falling Woman," as she is dubbed by the press, Charlie starts to unpeel the layers from fact and fiction to see if maybe, just maybe, she's a legitimate story. But if she's real... why can't they find her? Why did she go off the grid? Does she not want to reunite with her family? Why?

The Falling Woman unpeels like an complicated wrapping, and as we uncover the motivations and situations that led to Charlie speaking in front of a tribunal about his actions following the crash, we as the reader come to realize that this isn't a mystery about who or what ended the lives of those on the plane. It's a story about humans, and the struggles and realities that we all face when confronted with impossible choices.

Give this one a try if you like novels centered on the complexities of our decisions, humans stuck in hard places, and the ties that connect us all in the end. This isn't a novel with a "who crashed the plane and why ending" and I feel like that's not a bad spoiler to share - because if that's a spoiler to you, then this isn't the right novel to read.

Come for the characters and stay for the characters—it's a fascinating journey.


Thank you to Algonquin for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Erin is on a flight from DC to California for a cancer retreat. She has pancreatic cancer. When the plane goes down in Kansas, Erin is the only survivor. Erin wants to disappear and not return home to her grown children and husband. She wants to live her remaining time alone not wanting to burden her family. Charlie is the NTSB agent sent to investigate the plane crash. He hears rumors of a survivor and begins to try and find Erin. When Charlie finds Erin he tries to convince her to come forward. She is not interested. She wants to spare her family the pain of finding her to only lose her again to cancer. I enjoyed this book and I truly felt for Erin. What would you do if you were in Erin's place? I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

The Falling Woman is a wonderful novel that is both fast paced and thought provoking read about a lone survivor and a woman battling Pancreatic Cancer.
Erin Geraghty survives a plane explosion over Kansas as she is coming from a Cancer retreat on a flight from from DC to San Francisco. The NTSB investigates the crash and sends Charlie Radford to determine the cause of the crash and confirm Erin's existence. However, Erin wants to live out the remainder of her life alone and goes into hiding. She is tired of battling this cancer and does not want to cause additional heartache for her loved ones, to only survive this tragic plane explosion then to have to lose her a few months later.
This was such a great read for me. I always navigate to how medical information is written in books as a nurse and appreciate all the research that have gone to write a well-researched topic. I was also quite intrigued with the idea of survivors and lone survivors especially of plane crashes and other major catastrophic events. This book makes for a great group discussion for a book club and buddy reads. I really enjoyed this one a lot.

This book has a very intriguing premise--a plain crashes, basically exploding midair, but supposedly, a woman survives the crash basically unharmed. This is actually a thing that has happened quite a few times, so it's not as fantastical as it seems on the surface.

This book is a character study of two people in the midst of this occurrence: Erin, a married mother of two who has been suffering from pancreatic cancer and is on the plane on her way to a cancer patient retreat, she knows she doesn't have much longer and needs a breather, and Charlie, who works for the NTSB investigating the crash. The two intersect, but not in the way that you might imagine.

I didn't like Erin throughout this book. I could not relate to her although I could generally understand why she made the decisions she did. This did pull me out of the story because I was just angry with her choices. This would make a good book club book because there's a great deal here to discuss: how much are we in charge of our own lives? In the light of a tragedy like this, how much privacy should be expected or deserved?

I read Dear Edward last year and loved it. I connected with it emotionally. This book is similarly themed, yet I never truly connected with it as much as I hoped to. It is definitely a book worth reading and readers searching for a contemplative and engaging story should pick it up.