|
Night Fall
|
| List Price: | $26.95 |
| Price: | $7.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com
81 new or used available from $2.13
Average customer review:
Product Description
On a Long Island beach at dusk, Bob Mitchell and Janet Whitney conduct their illicit love affair in front of a video camera, set to record each steamy moment. Suddenly a terrible explosion lights up the sky. Grabbing the camera, the couple flees as approaching police cars speed toward the scene. Five years later, the crash of Flight 800 has been attributed to a mechanical mal-function. But for John Corey and Kate Mayfield, both members of the Elite Anti-terrorist Task Force, the case is not closed. Suspecting a cover-up at the highest levels and disobeying orders, they set out to find the one piece of evidence that will prove the truth about what really happened to Flight 800-the videotape that shows a couple making love on the beach and the last moments of the doomed airliner.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #73833 in Books
- Published on: 2004-11-22
- Format: Bargain Price
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 496 pages
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
John Corey, former NYPD homicide detective, assigned to the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force in the pre-millennium 90's, makes a return appearance in a thoughtful novel offering an alternative to the government's "official" position on what really happened to TWA Flight 800, which crashed off the Long Island coast in the summer of 1996. Accompanying his wife Kate to a memorial marking the five-year anniversary of the crash, Corey's curiosity is aroused by what appears to be a concerted effort by Kate's fellow federal agents to keep him--and her--from investigating a case that appears to be closed. Corey's detecting skills lead him to two witnesses to the crash, who were enjoying an adulterous interlude on the beach at the time the plane went down--and videotaping their sexual escapades while what appears to be a terrorist missile attack takes place in the background. What ratchets up the tension in this capably written thriller is what the reader knows but Corey doesn't as he heads for a showdown with those responsible for the official cover-up as the clock ticks down to the morning of September 11, 2001. DeMille's deft touch with a riddle wrapped in an enigma--what really happened to Flight 800--makes his "what if" scenario a more than plausible theory; you don't have to believe in conspiracies or government cover-ups to find his latest engrossing, entertaining, and enlightening. --Jane Adams
Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Nelson DeMille on Night Fall: An Exclusive Essay
From Publishers Weekly
From AudioFile
It was a true story, the explosion of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island in 1996, that inspired Nelson DeMille to write the fictional Night Fall. Read this Amazon.com exclusive essay for insight into the coincidences that made this tragedy a subject DeMille couldn't ignore.
Demille's latest is sure to be a #1 bestseller—but it's also sure to be controversial. The book is centered on an investigation of the July 1996 crash of flight TWA 800, "when... a big Boeing 747 bound for Paris with 230 passengers and crew on board, exploded off the Atlantic coast of Long Island, sending all 230 souls to their deaths." In July 2001, Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force detective John Corey, a brilliant, smart-ass detective last seen in Plum Island and The Lion's Game, accompanies his FBI agent wife, Kate Mayfield, to the fifth anniversary of the disaster. John, whose wife worked the crash in 1996, understands that Kate has brought him along because she doesn't buy the official finding of "mechanical failure" and wants him to mount his own investigation. There are 200 eyewitnesses who swear they saw a missile lift into the clear night sky and bring down the airplane, a charge dismissed by the CIA as an optical illusion. Though Corey is warned away from the investigation, like any good fictional detective, this only serves to spur him on. He uncovers evidence that a man and a woman, on the beach that fateful night videotaping their adulterous affair, inadvertently caught on tape the missile hitting the plane. The book is primarily about John tracking down the couple, but as the end nears, readers will begin to understand the perilous direction in which Demille is leading them. The pages will turn in a blur as a feeling of dread grows, until the end comes and one's worst fears are confirmed. Readers will think about this one for a long time.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
In July 1996, TWA Flight 800 was climbing over the Long Island Sound on its way to Paris. Suddenly, an immense burst of light was seen by hundreds, who watched in horror as the 747 exploded and fell to earth. Many of those same people swore under oath that they also saw a stream of light leaving from the horizon and arcing up to intersect the massive aircraft. Scott Brick lends his superb voice to Nelson DeMille's fictional account of what happened on that July night. As narrator, Brick does not resort to artifice. He differentiates gender with just the slightest change in tone, delivering a skilled recitation of dialogue. This abridged version of DeMille's latest thriller should be popular. J.L.C. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Customer Reviews
A long road to nowhere
I will try to make this review as helpful as possible without wasting much more of my time thinking about this book. I do, however, feel the need to steer people clear of this one.
I wonder if DeMille had to meet a certain word count for his publisher. It is slow and VERY repetitive, taking its time to (very) slowly deliver the plot. It takes him a good 600 pages to build up to the climax and by the time I got there I was very curious to see how this was going to unfold.
Instead, the author takes such a cheap way out -- none of the loose ends are tied up. Well, maybe one...but barely. It's almost as if he wrote himself into a corner that he couldn't get out of. I am tempted to explain DeMille's incredibly cheap way out but I won't in case you choose to form your own opinion.
DeMille's writing style is decent. Sometimes funny, sometimes juvenile. His narrative is pretty good, but his dialogue can be pretty cringe-worthy (but not nearly as bad as Baldacci's).
The book is a long way to go with virtually no payoff. This is the first book of DeMille's that I have read, so perhaps fans of his will like it.
Worthy, But Not His Best
Nelson DeMille has for years been one of my favorite authors, gotta love that bad-boy Corey...but if this had been my first DeMille read I probably would not bother again. The ending is disappointing and flat, and seemed like a cop-out on unraveling the controversy. This novel just doesn't hold your interest as most of his work does, plus terrorism is not a plotline I find interesting. Something is missing here, and it could be due to the fact-based plot. I will continue to read DeMille. When he gets it right it's great.
Excellent Story and Characters
In my opinion this was a very skillfully crafted story and the pages turned quickly. If you enjoy police procedurals and anything regarding the terrorist activity prior to 9/11 you will very likely enjoy this book. I found the main character's humor very entertaining and added a lot to the story. I found the premise of the plot to be very believable and that the investigation proceeded in a plausible manner. I do agree with some of the criticism that the end came sudden and a bit too easy, and I would have found it more palatable had the author not given credit to someone at the end of the work that gave him an easy way out of the problematic corner he had painted himself into with his plot. No matter. In the end, I found this to be a most enjoyable book and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a well told mystery.
