This definitely had lots of twists and surprises. Some parts I found a little out of the realm of real life possibility but then that's why we call it fiction. Give it a read.

A mother and her very young son are returning on a long overseas flight from a visit with her father, when she makes the ill-fated decision to leave him sleeping and visit the restroom quickly. Her baby inexplicably disappears mid-flight in those few moments and can't be found anywhere. Compounding the situation, her very famous mom suffered from a kind of memory loss that she fears will be hereditary. Now everyone wonders, did she even bring the child on board the plane? How could he have just vanished?

Missing in Flight grabbed my attention from the first page and never let go. I really enjoy reading thrillers and mysteries that I can't solve midway through the book, and Audrey Cole has a gifted way of crafting such a story.

Missing in Flight by Audrey J. Cole is a gripping thriller that turns an everyday moment into a nightmare. When Makayla briefly leaves her baby, Liam, in the care of a fellow passenger during a flight, she never expects to return and find him gone. What follows is a tense, high-stakes mystery unraveling at 35,000 feet. The novel taps into the anxieties of parenthood, making readers question how quickly an innocent decision can spiral into disaster. With its compelling premise and fast-paced storytelling, this is a must-read for thriller fans—especially those new to Cole’s work.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love a fast-paced thriller, and this one was absolutely wild. Missing in Flight is a pulse-pounding, addictive ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Believe me when I say you won’t be able to put it down. It had me doubting every character, and I ended up reading it in one sitting because I needed to know who was behind it all.

Missing in Flight starts off at a slow pace, requiring readers to be patient as the story sets the stage for the events to come, but the last third that’s when things really kick into gear. The pacing may not be quick, but it’s the imaginative details and subtleties in the narrative that truly flesh out the plot. While this could be a challenge for some, it’s what made the payoff so much more satisfying for me in the end. It’s a quick read once you hit that final stretch, but getting to that point might feel a bit like wading through a slow stream.

Thanks NetGally for advance copy

4.25/5

Makayla gets up to go to the bathroom and makes a split second decision to leave her infant in the carrier under the watchful eye of a seat-mate because let’s be real, there is no room in those bathrooms and the baby isn’t going anywhere. She walks back to her seat and realizes immediately her baby is missing. Naturally she panics, and starts looking everywhere. She alerts the attendants and no one can find her baby. Poof. Disappeared into thin air. But then…people start to question if she really had her baby. No one REALLY saw him. Or did they?

Ding ding… this is your captain asking you to sit in your seat with your seatbelt because we will be hitting some turbulence and a FREAKIN missing infant in this flight! 👀 Say whaaa? Ok Audrey, whatcha trying to do to these mama hearts?! 😆 I go into books blind and I am just telling you my heart was pounding from the first few pages of this book! This literally plays to so many of my mama fears and I loved every heart stopping moment of it! What is wrong with me?! I devoured this in one stressful sitting and I can say with confidence this is Audrey’s best book yet! I loved how she made me question everything and everyone in this book. This truly was the ultimate locked room thriller and completely worth the layover! If you haven’t read her books yet, you need to! This one was AMAZING!

This was a fast paced thriller that was under 300 pages and would be great for any thriller lover and especially one looking for a quick read! MISSING IN FLIGHT was highly entertaining and while at times quite unbelievable, that is what made it so thrilling and entertaining. It is a locked room mystery that takes place on a plane which personally gave me chills. You’ll be wondering where the baby is but you’ll asleep be scratching your head wondering what else is going on. I highly recommend this juicy thriller!

Makayla is headed home from Alaska to NYC with her 3 month old son, Liam. Once they takeoff Liam falls fast asleep.

During the flight she runs to the restroom leaving her baby behind. When she returns Liam is gone. She frantically searches the plane but cannot find him. A fast paced thriller that will keep you absolutely guessing until the end.

Thank you Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer for this ARC!

I have a weak spot for a plane setting in a thriller as well as a good locked room mystery, so it's easy to understand why I added Missing In Flight to my TBR as soon as I first read the blurb. Add the fact that I've enjoyed Audrey J. Cole's writing in the past, and it comes as no surprise that I've been looking forward to join the flight and learn more about what is going on. And what a ride it turned out to be! The start was a bit slow and there were parts that were a quite repetitive, but especially the second half was tense and I couldn't stop reading.

I cannot imagine anything more frightening for a mother than to have to leave their child for just a minute, only for her to discover her baby is gone when she returns... Imagine when it happens on a plane, and you just KNOW someone among the people on board is behind it. This is exactly what happens to Makayla while she is returning to New York from a visit to her father in Alaska, and boy did it make for a fascinating premise! The fact that the majority of the plot is set on board of the plane makes it a true locked room mystery, and while I had my suspicions I never did guess the full truth behind it all.

Missing In Flight uses a multiple POV structure, although we mainly switch between the mother Makayla and the co-pilot Anna in the air and FBI analyst Tina on the ground. Later on, we also get the father Jack's POV to complement the part of the story set on the ground... While he is less present, his POV does play a key role in the plot. Makayla's POV could get a bit repetitive and frustrating after a while; I get that she is desperate to find her child and having others not believe her story only made things worse, but her behavior was still way too erratic. I wasn't too big a fan of Anna, but then again I never like a cheating element... It was interesting to see things from inside the cockpit though. Tina's POV was probably my favorite, mostly because we got to see the investigation through her eyes.

I'm keeping this review short to avoid spoilers, but what I can say is that you will definitely have to be able to suspend your disbelief to properly enjoy the story. Especially the second half takes some turns that are way over the top and they don't exactly help making this story feel credible. It was all a bit too farfetched to be truly satisfying, although I can't deny the fact that I never did see those twists coming. And there is no doubt that the increased tension made me race through the pages!

All in all, Missing In Flight turned out to be a suspenseful and entertaining ride despite a few minor hiccups. A bit slow to start, but the tension is racked up in the second half and there is no doubt that the story goes out with a bang.

I mean seriously?? COME ON. Flightplan with Jodie Foster is one of my favorite movies ever and did this book deliver and leave my heart in my throat like the movie did? YES. If you suspend belief and dive deep, this is an insanely wild and uncomfortable ride, especially if you’re a parent. The thriller aspect was phenomenal of course but the back stories of the characters and the way their lives and family dynamics played into the story? Chef’s kiss!

3.5 stars! Scheduled pub: Mar 1! This is also a First Reads pick so go grab it if you haven't grabbed yours yet!

Audrey J. Cole is an auto-request/ auto-buy author for me so I was excited to read her newest.

Would recommend if you love:
-Locked room thriller
-Multi-POV
-TOTALLY Bingeable story
-OTT ending

This was a good locked room (doesn't get much more locked room than an airplane in flight) thriller that kept me reading in a rush to find out what would happen. HOW does a baby go MISSING during a flight? The emotion of Makayla was easy to understand. And with Jack (the husband) at home, it was so easy to see how the mind could spiral thinking of all the possible reasons or explanations for the situation. Neither one could really do anything so the feeling of helplessness was overarching for both their POV.

I love that the author cleverly places details about each character so it's impossible to know who to trust. The red herrings felt all too plausible so it was fun guessing right alongside the characters. (Okay, the characters wouldn't have been having "fun" but y'know what I mean).

Around 62% things started to get wild and it gets a little OTT by the end but if you can, suspend your disbelief and hang in there.

All in all, would recommend as this is a good, quick thriller that kept me reading and kept me guessing.

I could not put this book down! A thriller that will keep you bouncing between different scenarios until the surprising twist conclusion.

OH MY GOSH.

I am a huge fan of traveling and I go on planes often but this book had my heart beating so fast in nervousness!!

I cannot even imagine a situation like this - a baby goes missing onboard a flight. Combine this with turbulence due to the raging storm outside, the flight not being able to land due to the unsafe weather conditions, the constant search for the baby and some shady passengers on board all wrapped up this intense thriller that had me flying through the pages at rapid speed. I really couldn't put this book down. It was so heart stoppingly addictive with its short chapters and multiple POVs.

Grab the popcorn and get comfy for this doozy of a trip!!

Audrey J. Cole is one of my go-to authors. Her thrillers are unique and tense and she writes with hints of empathy and knowledge, presumably partially due to her nursing and pilot father background. I see her name on a book; I read it. It's that simple.

Makayla is on a flight from Anchorage to New York with the apple of her eye, three-month-old Liam. When the call of nature comes, the only alternative is to leave her sleeping baby in his bassinet for a whisper of a second. To her horror, when she returns he is gone. Her desperate search takes her up and down aisles and anywhere a person can physically get to... or can't. A few staff try to help but it's not enough. They begin questioning her mental state. There's her bump on her head from the day before and her famous late mom's issue niggles. Her husband is a banker with high-profile clients and is going through stress at work but there is only so much he and the FBI can do on terre firma. Basically, her life is a mess at the moment. But her intense love and worry for her son drive her to move heaven and earth.

As always, Audrey's writing and snappy pace grab my attention. However, the characters in this novel are a bit on the one dimensional side and much of the premise is implausible. I set the latter aside and flew by the seat of my pants, immersing myself in suspended reality and enjoyed the zippy story for what it was...an unrealistic escapist adventure. Why do I seem to read high altitude books when I'm about to embark on long uncomfortable flights?

My sincere thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this captivating novel..

This is a frantic, adrenaline fueled, fast paced popcorn thriller!

Makayla Rossi is flying home to New York with her 3 month old baby, Liam, after visiting her father in Alaska. She has to use the bathroom while her fussy baby is sound asleep in a bassinet and all the flight attendants are busy. She asks the girl across the aisle to keep an eye on her baby for a few minutes. But that young woman is wearing headphones and is deeply engrossed with an in-flight movie. When she returns from the bathroom, no more than 2 minutes gone, her baby has vanished and there is a pillow left in his place. Every mother’s nightmare! The plane is searched and no baby is found. Makayla is going to have to keep her wits about her to get her baby back; a baby no one can recall seeing with her.

I read this in under 24 hours, it was so gripping!

Thank you Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on March 1, 2025

This book was hard for me because I read about a fourth of it and then stopped reading and set it aside. I came back weeks later to try it again and was hooked until the end!!

So I would say that you have to let it build up for a while and then ride out the awesome ride of frayed nerves and trying to decipher if your narrators are reliable or not.

I ended up really enjoying this book even though it didn’t grab me from the first page. I felt the story was pretty original. If you like the movie flight plan you’d probably really enjoy this book.

I had a hard time getting into this book. It might be the mood I am currently experiencing. As I have written with other reviews, I am a major mood reader.. I may give this book another shot when I am in the mood for a good thriller.

"Missing in Flight" by Audrey J. Cole is a heart-pounding, twist-filled thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Makayla Rossi is on a flight from Anchorage to LaGuardia with her 3-month-old son Liam. When she asks a young girl to watch her baby while she steps away to use the restroom, she returns to find the bassinet completely empty. Where is baby Liam??

The mystery unravels from there, sending readers on a wild, unpredictable ride.
This story is one of those books that gets under your skin. As the suspense builds, I found myself coming up with all kinds of wild theories, suspecting just about everyone, even Makayla herself! Could she be suffering from the same memory disorder her famous mother had? The twists keep coming, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, another layer is revealed.

While the premise may seem extremely unbelievable at times (hole in bathroom lol), if you’re able to turn off your brain, this is an absolute page turner. For fans of locked-room mysteries and psychological whodunnits, Missing in Flight is a must-read. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good, mind-bending thriller.

What really stood out to me, though, was how well researched this book was. Audrey J. Cole clearly put in a lot of effort to make the story feel authentic. She consulted real life FBI agents and detectives to ensure the procedural elements were accurate, and even asked her dad (who’s a pilot?) for insight into the world of aviation. That kind of attention to detail really elevated the experience and made the plot feel even more immersive. Thank you NetGalley!

4.5 stars. This books was so good I couldn’t stop reading. Some things did seem a little far fetched and dramatic but I still really enjoyed it.
Thank you Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Edge of your seat thriller, set in an airplane flying from Alaska to New York! This one was every parent's nightmare. Makayla was flying home from visiting her father with her three month old son, Liam. The flight was nearly empty and she asks a young woman to watch him for a few. minutes while she uses the bathroom; when she comes back, Liam is gone. Told in various viewpoints between Makayla, one of the co-pilots on the plane, the baby's father Jack and an investigator from the FBI, this was a quick and suspenseful read. I felt for Makayla as the flight crew were quick to believe she was lying about having a baby, and as she begged them to search the passengers luggage, the crew became more and more convinced, Makayla didn't have a baby with her at all.

On the ground, the FBI was tearing into everything from Makayla and Jack's social media to issuing a warrant to search her father's home in Anchorage. It turns out that Makayla's mother who was a famous movie star had died in an accident caused by temporary amnesia and now the FBI wonder if Makayla has it too. Then they switch their attention to her husband Jack who manages million dollar funds for an investment company. It turns out that some fraud might be going on at his company; could this be connected to Liam disappearing? Then there is the new "mom" friend she recently met; could she know something about the missing baby?

The author did a good job of showing the exhaustion and sheer terror Makayla felt as the flight crew grew more upset with her insistence on doing more searching. On top of that, severe storms were causing turbulence and the pilot and co-pilot were struggling with some mechanical issues. A couple of things were a bit unbelievable but that is to be expected in a thriller, and I really enjoyed this one. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book for review.