Books of 2024: Week 21 - Falling

Cody reads a thriller novel that's destined to be a Hollywood blockbuster.

FALLING by T.J. Newman

Author T.J. Newman has a great life story. She worked at an independent bookstore before becoming a flight attendant, a job she had for a decade – and while working on red eye flights between Los Angeles and New York, she was inspired to start writing a thriller novel about a pilot and his flight crew. She would write out chapters by hand while passengers were sleeping, then type them up during layovers. Her debut novel, Falling, was turned down by forty-one literary agents before she found one who was willing to represent her work. Now she’s making seven-figure deals left and right, with Falling (and her following novel) already set to receive film adaptations.

As interesting as that is, the story Newman wrote also happens to be quite good. It’s shocking to hear that it was turned down by so many agents when it has such clear commercial appeal. But it also makes absolute sense that the agent who decided to represent Newman is Shane Salerno, as he is also a screenwriter who has worked on the likes of Armageddon, Shaft (2000), Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, and the Avatar sequels – so of course it would be obvious to him that the story had the potential to be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster.

Falling centers on a pilot named Bill Hoffman, who has agreed to pilot a flight from Los Angeles to New York on what was supposed to be his day off. The flight has barely gotten off the ground when Bill receives an e-mail containing a picture of his wife wearing a suicide vest. She and their two children have been taken hostage by a terrorist who will murder them if Bill doesn’t crash his plane, which has over 140 “souls on board,” into a target that will be specified later. Not only that, but this maniac has also managed to slip a poison gas bomb into Bill’s luggage that he’s supposed to set off in the cabin before the crash. So he’s going to have to gas his own passengers before killing himself and the survivors in the crash.

Bill has gotten that e-mail picture by the end of chapter 2, and Falling is a real page-turner for the 40 remaining chapters. Even though Bill is stuck on the flight deck, Newman keeps the situation interesting and also branches out to focus on different characters – like the flight crew who backs Bill up as he tries to find a way out of this (which is complicated because there might be a second terrorist on board) and the FBI agent who is alerted about what’s going on and tries to rescue the Hoffman family. The FBI agent's side of the story even allows for explosions, crashes, chases, and gunfire to be worked in.

Falling is a great read, and it should be quite easy to turn it into an entertaining film that will draw in viewers during the summer movie season. Newman is already writing the screenplay for Universal Pictures.