I finished 20 percent of this book and inhad to DNFed it. It didn’t hold my interest at all considering I would read anything to do with planes and mysteries.

I’m always eager to get my hands on the newest Scott Carson/Michael Koryta books.

This one is less of a chiller than the usual Carson books but I really enjoyed it. There’s only a slight note of the supernatural but it’s mostly just super science. The kind of just ahead of us science that could have been mistaken as magic back in the day.

The timeline mix works really well and the dual plots hang together nicely. The first threads are pretty disbursed but just enough is revealed to keep you going until everything comes together in a fast paced climax.

Very enjoyable. I’m glad I received an advanced copy and hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did!

✨ Lost meets Stephen King’s 11/22/63 meets Oppenheimer. Do I have your attention?

✨Well researched elements of time travel, the arms race, the Cold War era, AI, and coming of age all kept me on the edge of my seat.

✨I loved Lost Man’s Lane and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book. I must admit it was a departure from the aforementioned, but I really enjoyed it.

✨ Fun fact: Scott Carson is the pseudonym used by bestselling author Michael Koryta.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Dual timelines
✨Well-researched historical fiction
✨Stephen King
✨JJ Abrams
✨Maine settings
✨Indiana settings

VERY intriguing premise with some really complex and interesting characters. However, it all got a bit jumbled towards the end, as often happens with books involving time traveling.

I have enjoyed all of Scott Carson's books, and Lost Man's Lane is one of the best books I've ever read, so to say that I was excited for Departure 37 is an understatement. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. It starts out good, with a pilot receiving a phone call from his mother telling him not to fly, but by the end of the first chapter that mystery is already explained. From the description of the book I thought that explaining the phone calls was what it was about, so to have that solved immediately was surprising. What follows is a series of baffling decisions made by the government and military. It felt like they kept making the worst, most ridiculous decisions possible in order to force the plot along in a certain direction. For example, an absurd assumption was based on a mere hotel reservation with no follow-up at all and a greeting was done horribly. It felt like The Three Stooges were in charge. Also, I wasn't a big of Charlie. She was kind of off-putting and annoying. So many things are left completely unexplained as well, and I can think of at least one thing that doesn't seem to make sense at all.

Now for the positive. The writing itself is good. The characters are well-developed, even if I didn't like them all. Abe was great and I would have enjoyed seeing more of him. Dr. Martin was an interesting character as well. There were a couple of surprise twists. The history was obviously well-researched, and I learned a lot about that time period. One scene was very emotional and brought tears to my eyes.

Overall, Departure 37 just didn't work for me. I hope this book resonates better with other readers, but for me, too many poor decisions were made, too much was left unexplained, and it just didn't have the heart, charm and spookiness I was looking for. I still look forward to reading Scott Carson's next book, however.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Departure 37. I loved Lost Man’s Lane and was very excited to this novel
This novel tells the story in two time lines - the current time and sixty years ago.
It starts when airline pilots receive a call from their mother directing them not to fly their plane on that day. And some of these mothers had passed away
Strange - yes and causing a crisis.
In a secret chamber this event is not strange. No this event is a safety net for the public. And if airplanes are in the air they may cause catastrophic consequences.
This is a different story than I thought.
I liked the characters and the plot. What had me baffled at times was the technical details which had me confused at times
Good book. 3 stars.

THIS MAY HAVE SPOILERS
Having loved all other books by the pseudonym Scott Carson I couldn’t wait to read this as well but I found myself disappointed. The book started scary enough with telephone calls to pilots from their moms telling them not to fly that day because of a disastrous outcome. And some of the moms were dead. But we quickly find out how this happened. There are two timelines and storylines, present and when we first had nuclear weaponry up to 1962 during the Cuban missle crisis. (As a young child when this happened I never realized exactly how close we came to the brink of extinction, which was interesting). The way the chapters are set up the storylines bounce between the two timelines too quickly. I got into one timeline and then all of a sudden I’d be at the other. This was a little difficult with all the technical and scientific information that was written. I was definitely hoping for more spooky and scary like his other books, but I would classify this sci-fi, not suspense and not horror. The writing was.as an always good but my eyes kept glazing over the scientific detailed parts although I know this was an important part of history. I would’ve liked more of the story with the girl, the guy and the older man. I do hope the girls shows up in future books in someway, she’s a very interesting character. So all in all I was disappointed and that’s my problem because as I said, I was looking for spooky.