A locked door mystery set on a plane. A mother who loses her baby mid flight while she’s in the restroom. As interesting as this all sounds, the writing was very stiff. None of the characters seemed fully developed, and I felt no compulsion to care about what happened to any of them.
Makayla acted like a complete insane person the whole book. Not to say I wouldn’t be freaking out if I couldn’t find my child but seriously sister you’re on a plane. And how many chances are the crew going to give her? In real life she probably would have been restrained and possibly tasered by the second chapter.
It is a quick easy read. If that’s what you’re looking for this will do it.
I received an ARC of this title, all opinions are my own.

This book definitely had me on edge and wondering how I would feel in this situation, a very intense read.

When Makayla returns from the restroom only minutes later, she is shocked to find her baby is gone. She frantically tries to get the crew to help her find him, but after checking the plane once, the passengers and crew start to wonder if a baby ever even boarded the plane. Feeling helpless, desperate, and alone, Makayla needs to figure out what happened to her son before it’s too late!

From the very start of this book, I was hooked! It is filled with edge of your seat suspense from beginning to end, which made it very hard to put down. Every single person on the plane seemed suspicious to me and I was so invested in finding out what was really going on. Cole does a great job casting doubt on every character in the book….Was the husband involved or was this a planned abduction in exchange for money? I even began questioning whether Liam really did ever get on the plane. I really felt for Makayla and any parent could relate to the emotions and fear that she was experiencing while trying to locate her son, while trying to convince everyone to help her! I also definitely felt frustrated with the flight crew and many times wanted to scream at them to handle things differently!
If you are looking for a fast paced, action packed thriller that will keep you up late turning pages, then give this one a read!

An utterly original locked room mystery that kept my eyes riveted to the pages, Missing in Flight had everything I wanted and more. From the multiple distinct POVs to the deftly delivered emotional depth, I was both swept up by the characters and also floored by the plot. After all, it was fast-paced, addictive, and suspenseful beyond belief. Plotted in such a way as to gradually build up the dread and foreboding, I knew in every fiber of my being that this catastrophe in the air could end in heart-rending disaster. So did it you ask? All I’m willing to say is that Ms. Cole nailed it in one by the end of the novel.

I do need to warn you, though, that this book required a definite suspension of ALL disbelief. Once I did that, however, it was one heck of a rollercoaster ride of suspense. From the plane packed with more suspects than allies to the compelling FBI investigation on the ground, the more facts that were revealed, the less I seemed to know. You see, with each ensuing twist, the story shifted a little more until no amount of armchair sleuth sleuthing could’ve figured it out. And IYKYK, but constant, unending surprises are just what I like in a well-played psychological thriller.

All in all, I found this pulse-pounding plot supremely well done. With a premise that has me whispering “Wait, what?!” more times than I could count and in air dynamics that felt decidedly real, I easily got swept up in the drama as I waited to find out what became of this poor baby. And thanks to a cleverly portrayed unreliable narrator, I had no clue who to trust within this gripping new novel. So if you love suspicious characters, palpable tension, and short inhale-able chapters, this book’s for you. Shrewdly plotted and emotionally driven, I had a blast ripping through these 277 pages in no time at all. Rating of 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Audrey J. Cole, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for my complimentary physical and digital copies. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is the epitome of the locked room trope, and I was intrigued from the first part. I was able to read this fairly quickly, as the page count is just under 300 pages. In terms of pacing, I would say there was a lull in the middle, but then the ending 30% was lightening fast. Despite the lull, the mystery was enough to keep me going. I was happy with the ending as well, although I will say this book to me classifies more of a mystery than a thriller. Would recommend if you are looking for a quick mystery or are new to the genre!

A locked room mystery that takes place on an airplane. Makayla is flying home to New York, with her three month old baby. She goes to the bathroom only to return with an empty bassinet. Where is her baby?

This book is a gripping premise that hooks the reader from the start. Makayla is a strong character that you will be cheering for! Stuff happens along the way, with twists and the story will keep you guessing. This can be very emotional at times and the writing is great! Told in multiple POV, with an intriguing backstory. Enjoy the turbulence!

Popcorn Thriller, Addictive Read and Fast- Paced! 3 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy! This book will be released 3/1/25.

Who doesn’t love a locked room thriller? Missing in Flight is a wonderfully suspenseful book about a mother, who after going to the bathroom on a plane, returns back to her seat to find her infant son gone. Is her son really missing or did Makayla only think she brought him on board? Told from multiple POV and filled with deception and action packed pages this book was an incredibly easy read. The author did an amazing job with telling this story and I look forward to reading whatever this author writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Great premise (although not that original) and good characters (although some felt extraneous and unnecessary). But, all in all, Missing in Flight wasn’t as good as I expected it to be.

It started off well enough. A woman with her infant boards a plane bound from Anchorage, Alaska to New York’s LaGuardia airport. During the flight her sleeping baby disappears while she makes a brief visit to the lavatory. Toss in a distraught mother, a brewing thunderstorm, and the unaccounted-for baby, and the tension quickly mounts.

While I enjoyed the beginning of the book, the story began to lose its appeal. Besides just being unbelievable and unrealistic, the rehashing and repeating of the issues and concerns became tedious. The inclusion of the pilots and their personal stories seemed totally unnecessary and detracted from the story as a whole. Even the descriptions of how they were flying the plane and all the technical aspects seemed to be overdone and much too detailed for this book.

Finally, I don’t think some of the actions of the characters were described very well. I like to visualize how a scene is playing out and throughout the book I struggled to do this. Overall, I can only give Missing in Flight 3 *s at the very most. NetGalley provided an advance reader copy.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BUCKLE YOUR SEAT BELTS!!!!!!! Missing In Flight written by Audrey J. Cole is a twisty thriller that makes me never want to fly on an airplane. As someone that has never flown before, this book scared the heck out of me and has confirmed my suspicions that I will NEVER fly on an airplane in my life, no one can convince me otherwise. With all of the airplane mishaps and close calls up in the air and on the run ways and even mid flight in today's world, Missing In Flight gave me the chills. I have seen so many reviewers saying this book was far fetched at times, which I 100% agree with them, but after watching the news the past month or so with all of the crashes etc, I don't know what to think. Missing In Flight had me hooked from the very first page, all the way to the very last page, I just couldn't put this book down. I will say that you are going to have so many questions while you are reading this book, but don't worry every single question will be answered, just keep reading until the very last page. I have never read book before this one by Audrey J. Cole, but this one certainly won't be my last. I can't recommend this book enough, please mark your calendars for March 1st, 2025 because you won't want to miss this twisty thriller. To anyone that has flown before, please read this book because I want to know if anyone has experienced this before in their life times.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND THOMAS & MERCER FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!!

"You should never feel guilty for taking care of your own needs".

"You never know when your time with someone could be your last".

"People do irrational things when they fear they are about to get caught".

Missing In Flight is told in four POV'S from Anna who is the co-pilot, Makayla Rossi who is the female main character, Jack Rossi who is Makayla's husband and the male main character, and finally Tina Farrar who is an FBI agent. Flight 7038 of Pacific Air Flight is currently thirty thousand feet in the air currently en route from Anchorage Alaska to LaGuardia New York when out of no where panic and fear starts to erupt. Makayla was spending two weeks in Alaska with her father and her three month old son, Liam, but now she's heading home to her husband in New York. When Makayla was in Alaska, she went hiking with her father and son when she fell and hit her head but insisted she was fine. When Flight 7038 is thirty thousand feet in the air, Makayla decides to use the restroom and asks the teenager across the isle to watch her sleeping baby, but when Makayla returns to her seat, the bassinet is empty. Makayla starts causing a ruckus on the plane accusing people of having taken her child and going through everything on the plane looking for her son. Nobody boarding Flight 7038 ever recalls seeing Makayla board the airplane with a baby. So, where is Liam? Was there ever a baby in the first place as passengers were boarding the airplane? You'll have to read this book to have these questions answered.

As Makayla keeps accusing people of stealing her baby, the passengers soon realize that Makayla Rossi is Lydia Banks daughter. Lydia Banks suffered from transient global amnesia. Lydia suffered from an amnesiac episode on live TV before she walked off set angry and soon died in a fatal car accident. As Makayla starts causing more outrage, the passengers and flight attendants start causing Makayla's mental state when they learn that she's related to Lydia Banks. I often felt bad for Makayla for the way she was being treated, but girl, you cannot be running and screaming when an airplane is thirty thousand feet up in the air. Jack Rossi is a Zac Efron look alike, but ladies you soon won't be crushing on him when you learn about all of the secrets he's been keeping from those closest to him. Jack is an account manager at Rothman Securities as an investment banker. As the story and fear begins to escalate even more, Jack is being investigated for a ransom after he was featured in a Forbes article. I felt so bad for Makayla and Jack as they tried to get answers and find their son, but guys come on, you are married, you need to learn to communicate better with each other. I can't even imagine what it's like to lose your child while you are on an airplane because damn, I had chills the entire time. As I was reading this book, my heart was literally beating right out of my chest.

Imagine being on an overnight flight from Alaska to New York, desperate to use the bathroom while your baby is fast asleep in his bassinet. It won’t hurt to leave him for a couple minutes, right? WRONG! Makayla comes back from the bathroom to an empty bassinet, and while she’s in a panic to find her missing baby, it doesn’t seem like everyone else is feeling that way.

This was a good locked room/airplane thriller! The second half of the book had great pacing, and I would have rated this higher if the front half of the book was more fast-paced. The author is a pilot’s daughter, so the official pilot speak to the control tower seemed cool and something I have never seen in a book before.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon/Thomas & Mercer for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

A locked-room mystery set on a plane with multiple suspicious characters and a potentially unreliable main character? Say less.

Makayla Rossi is traveling back home to New York with her infant son, Liam, after visiting her father in Anchorage. Halfway through the flight Makayla asks the woman across the aisle from her if she'll keep an eye on Liam so she can go to the restroom. The woman agrees, but when Makayla returns Liam isn't in his bassinet. The plane is searched, the FBI is contacted, but there is no sign of Liam. When no one on board can recall ever actually seeing the baby, their suspicion turns to Makayla.

This book was a wild ride, and I had so much fun reading it! I am a sucker for a locked-room mystery and I'm not sure a room can get more locked than a plane mid flight. I thought the author did a really good job of writing all the side characters and giving multiple of the people on board a motive for why they might've taken a baby. I also enjoyed the inclusion of the pilot and intelligence analyst's perspectives, as I thought they added some depth to the story. While this was a quick read in general, coming in at under 300 pages, the short chapters and different POVs really kept me turning the pages to figure out what happened next.

This certainly wasn't the most believable plot, but I thought it was balanced by the author's obvious research into police procedure and airplane mechanics. I did feel like the dialogue got a little repetitive at times, with different characters relaying the same information to each other in different POVs, but it wasn't to the point that it affected my enjoyment of the book.

If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller I would recommend giving this one a try.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Thomas & Mercer!

This is a 3.5 star book. It starts off really strong, with a baby going missing on a flight, then it's just stagnant for the rest of the book until the last 25%. The authors prose was good, though. I was able to read it quickly, and I appreciated that there wasn't a bunch of word salad.
I also didn't particularly care for many of the characters. Im not sure why we had a pov from a pilot. It didn't really add much to the story. They were just boring, really. There wasn't much substance to them.
All in all, it's an easy read, but it can kind of drag on in the middle there

This one did not go where I thought it would.

I definitely started reading it thinking, whelp...read this before. But about halfway through the book it takes a turn and what happens is unexpected.

It's also a little unbelievable, but I didn't really care because entertainment and popcorn, right?

Expect a few twists and turns and a very surprising reason for everything.

Fun read!

This book, I'm sorry, was horrible. Nothing seemed to be happening and the story went in circles. Third person plus no quotation marks around anything made it hard to read. Will not recommend as I did not enjoy it.

3.5 Stars. This starts strongly with a unique puzzle that seems unsolvable. Makayla boarded a plane in Anchorage with a bulging body sling devised for carrying a baby. She was returning to New York from visiting her father in Alaska, and while onboard the airliner flying at 30,000 feet, she left her three-month-old baby Liam asleep in his bassinet for a quick trip to the restroom. On returning, her baby is gone! Passengers and crew had noticed the baby carrier strapped to her body, but no one actually saw her baby. Liam has never uttered a sound. Makayla becomes frenzied while the flight attendants search every possible hiding place on the plane.

We can understand her fear, but she becomes so belligerent and frantic with the passengers and crew that we begin to be annoyed with her manic behaviour. She grabs the passenger's hand luggage, which has already been searched, insisting to have another look, and is determined to enter the cockpit. Our sympathy turns to annoyance with her behaviour. She refuses to obey the flight attendant's orders to be seated and struggles with them, resulting in injuries. It is necessary for her to be restrained in her seat.

It is learned that her mother had a rare type of amnesia, which resulted in her accidental death. Is it possible that Makayla has developed the same medical problem? Could she have forgotten the baby at her father's home or left him at the airport? As no one has actually seen the baby, her situation is suspect. Her husband, James, is a successful money manager and appeared on the cover of Forbes. Could his financial prominence set off a kidnapping plot for ransom? His firm has some financial irregularities, which could lead to an enormous ransom demand to recover missing funds. Did an unknown subject kidnap Liam before they boarded the plane? Is Makayla a part of a criminal plot? It seems impossible that Liam could have vanished onboard an aircraft that has been thoroughly searched. Are Jack, Mikayla's father, or any of the passengers implicated in the baby's disappearance.?

In the meantime, the FBI on the ground are investigating everyone's background. They cannot find any proof that the baby was on the flight. The story is told from the perspectives of Makayla, Jack, flight attendants, pilots, and the FBI. There is a lot of air-flight terminology, and the flight runs into a storm and landing problems. The narrative is repetitive early in the book due to Makayla's thoughts and actions. The parts about copilot Anne and FBI agent Tina could have been omitted with no loss to the story.

It is necessary to suspend disbelief. Still, the solution is farfetched, implausible, and even ridiculous. What has happened to the baby, and is he even alive? Despite the inconceivable ending, I was highly entertained and enjoyed the book. Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC. I will be looking for more books by author Audrey J Cole. Its publication is due on March 01.

This is definitely a unique thriller. Makayla is solo parenting a flight with her baby. She gets up to use the restroom while her baby is sleeping and, when she gets back, the bassinet is empty. Makayla experiences every mother’s worst nightmare, a missing child. However, no one remembers seeing the baby get on the plane and Makayla’s mother suffered from amnesia. Is the baby missing or was he even on the plane in the first place? 

Holy cow, this book gave me so much anxiety. Makayla’s search for her baby on the plane is so intense and sad. The passengers don't seem to care about a missing child. I do think this shows how some people don't want to be bothered by other people's issues. The flight attendants helped out until they began to question if the baby ever boarded the plane. I get their hesitancy though. I mean how could a baby go missing on a plane?

The pacing of this book is perfect, and it changed POVs perfectly. All the POVs were fun to read and added more mystery. This book hooked me, and I was dead-set on finding out where this baby is. When you get to the ending you definitely have to be okay with some unbelievable things happening. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for this eARC to review. All opinions are my own. This book will be available on March 1st, 2025!

Read if you like:
✈️ Plane Disasters
🔐 Locked Room Mysteries 
😥 Anxiety Inducing Moments

How can a baby go missing on a plane? That's the question Makayla is frantically trying to answer. She only stepped away to use the restroom but when she returned, baby Liam was gone from his carrier. Or was he ever there? This is a zippy closed plane thriller that will have you questioning Makayla's mental health, among other things. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. You might find it over the top and unrealistic but I'll bet you keep turning the pages to get answers.

This is my 3rd Audrey J. Cole book. There is something about her writing that pulls me in and keeps me interested. Missing In Flight was no exception. Easy to breeze through her books within a couple days. I desperately needed a book I couldn’t put down!

Missing In Flight had a straightforward plot (missing baby on a plane) with nowhere to run (seriously, how can an infant just *poof* disappear on a near empty airplane). So I wasn’t fully expecting the huge amount of intrigue, suspense, emotion, or mystery. So many nuggets of information sprinkled in each chapter had me constantly wondering if the answers were right in front of me or if they were distractions. It was difficult to take breaks from reading when I just wanted to find out how it would all come together. Truly loved every second of it.

The story is told from Multiple POVs: Makayla (mother of missing infant), Anne (pilot), Jack (father of missing infant), Tina (FBI). This was a great way to incorporate more settings and multiple suspicions by getting into the mind of several characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This review will be shared on NetGalley and Goodreads.

Pub Date Mar 01 2025

Mikayla Rossi is on a plane on the way home to NY with her 3 month old son Liam from visiting her father in Alaska. She asks the girl in a nearby seat to watch Liam in the bassinet so she can use the bathroom. When she goes back to her seat, Liam is gone. The crew and passengers search the plane but Liam isn’t anywhere. Questions about Mikayla’s mental state arise especially when everyone finds out her mother, who was an actress and killed in a car accident, had transient global amnesia. Was Liam actually on the plane? Her husband Jack is a high profile banker featured in Forbes and deals with a lot of money.
The story was told from multiple POVs: the parents Mikayla and Jack, the copilot Anna, and an analyst working with the FBI, Tina.
There was twists but not enough. There were some edge of your seat moments and moments you questioned and had you guessing. There was repetition in the story. I felt Mikayla’s worry and panic but she was annoying. The author did her research in regards to the language pilots and copilots speak. There were far-fetched and unrealistic parts.

Pub date: March 1, 2025

Thank you #netgalley and #Thomas and Mercer for the ARC

Missing In Flight
Wow!!! What a turbulent ride-literally!! What starts as an ordinary trip back home turns into a baby missing at 3,000 feet. Makayla needs to find her infant son before the unthinkable happens! This was a terrifying, spine-chilling thriller that I could not put down !! 5 stars