Night Fall by Nelson DeMille Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.99 You Save: $25.96 (96%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Night Fall
Book Review: A Tragedy, Shrouded in Mystery, Wrapped in an Enigma
Summary: 3 Stars
The Plot
A married man and woman engage in a sexual escapade on a Long Island beach on a fateful summer night. They have just finished fornicating and are lying naked on the beach when they notice a streak of light ascending in the twilight sky followed by a small then large explosion and ultimately a large aircraft eventually tumbling into the sea. What makes this couple different from hundreds of other witnesses is that they were videotaping their lovemaking and the video camera caught everything they witnessed. The only problem was they would never come forward because this married couple were not married to each other. Instead they grabbed the video camera and a few of their belongings and evanesced into the night in such a hurry that they left some evidence of their tryst behind.
Background
Night Fall is the latest novel by Nelson Demille, a prolific author of good repute. For his latest effort, Demille has taken the July 17, 1996, TWA flight 800 tragedy as his subject.
For Night Fall, Demille brings back the intractable, wise cracking homicide detective (aren`t they all) John Corey. Corey you may remember was the hero in Demille's penultimate book before Nightfall - The Lion's Game. He was also in one of my favorites, Plum Island. So what's a homicide detective doing in a story about an airliner crash? It seems John is on temporary assignment as a contract agent with the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force in New York and works on the same floor as his newlywed wife, FBI agent KateMayfield.
The Story
It is now July 17, 2001 and Kate drags her husband to the fifth anniversary memorial services for the crash victims. Kate was one of the witness interviewers after the crash five years previous, an experience that has left her with a bad feeling after the official explanation was released after an allegedly extensive investigation and She has attended each of the annual memorial services and this was no exception. What was an exception was her motive for attending this year and bringing John along.
Kate had been told in no uncertain terms and at the risk of her career to cease any more inquiries about the tragedy. Being a career FBI agent and not wishing to be sent to International Falls Minnesota, she gave the appearance of caving in but she had an ace whose name was John Corey.
After the Memorial, Kate took John to three nearby locations where he met with two extremely credible witnesses with two totally divergent views of what had happened. John, a curious individual by nature was hooked. Kate thought that John might be able to investigate under the radar and no one would be any the wiser but that was not to be. They were found out and sent on separate overseas assignments for three months as punishment, but that did not deter John. Something was fishy and he was going to find out what it was if it was the last thing he would do, which it almost was.
Conclusion
Night Fall is a novel about a real subject. As such it purports to uncover an investigational cover-up, through an illegal investigation by John Corey, which ends up going nowhere. I am left with the question after finishing the book - what was that all about?
As usual Demille does his homework. He exudes a great deal of knowledge about incident, laying out a case that debunks the accepted cause which is an electric malfunction. He describes how eight hundred witnesses were interviewed, two hundred of which reported seeing a steak of light, ostensibly a missile, heading toward the airplane seconds before the explosions, were seemingly ignored.
Part of my problem with the book was that I couldn't figure out where the facts ended and fiction began. Were there really two hundred ignored witnesses and was a large portion of the central part of the superstructure never recovered? Was Demille, through John Corey, on to something, or was everything a fabrication? I guess that's why the story goes nowhere and leaves the reader with many questions.
How well the book is written is another matter. Demille's writing is smooth and compelling. he generates a lot of interest quickly, making the book hard to put down. The actual writing was clever, perhaps a bit too clever in that Demille tries to equip Corey with a dry sense of humor equivalent to a stand up comedian. This routine of satirical one liners from Corey is so pervasive that, while enjoyable at first, it wears a little thin and after a while it gets somewhat corny. For instance while driving up a street in an exclusive guarded subdivision, Quail Hollow Lane, Corey wondered to himself how you could tell if a Quail was hollow - cute.
While I gave the book only three stars it was not because of the writing. In a nutshell we have a three star story presented in a five star manner. Hmmm..., perhaps I should give it a four star rating by average? No not when we have Hollow Quails and a few other pseudo jocular utterances.
Book Review: A career high for a master of the thriller genre!
Summary: 5 Stars
John Corey--beloved and wise-cracking hero of "Plum Island" and "Lion's Game"--returns. It's five years after the tragic crash of TWA Flight 800, which went down on July 17, 1996. Corey and his new wife, Kate, have just visited the five-year anniversary of the "accident." But in going to the anniversary, doubts are raised in Corey's mind: was it really an accident? What about that "red streak" that hundreds of people claimed to have seen...a streak that was inevitably comparable to a rocket...
Thus Corey begins his investigation into a five-year-old, closed case. Only a detective of Corey's skill could uncover something...especially with the pressure being put upon him to stop. But as Corey gets deeper and deeper into his investigation, his chances of escaping unscathed decrease. And soon, it will be Corey's quest for the truth, vs. the government's habit for conspiracies.
I don't want to give anything away here; people who've read DeMille's novels know that he has a habit of coming up with original, surprise endings. He outdoes himself here. Corey's quest climaxes in an inevitable--and yet entirely unforseeable--way. Gut-wrenching. You won't forget it.
"Night Fall" is probably DeMille's best novel yet. It's well-researched, and yet open-ended enough so that you are allowed to make up your own mind about the tragic evening of July 17, 1996. One thing's for sure, though--you won't be able to put "Night Fall" down until the very last page; and once you finally set the book aside, it'll take a couple hours for your nerves to settle. And you won't forget what you've just read. "Night Fall" is a truly unforgettable novel.
Book Review: A chilling accounting of a case that has haunting insights
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this book as an East Moriches resident for the past nine years. The book has such accurate accountings of what many witnesses saw that it is chilling!! While reading the book I couldn't help but look out my sliding glass doors, which face the Moriches Coast Guard station, and think that this case should be re-examined in light of the most recent terrorist attacks. Mr. DeMille you have once again provided your readers with a thought provoking fictional story which now I'm not so sure is fictional! The "souls" of TWA will never be forgotten. Thank you for such a thought provoking read.
Book Review: A crashing disappointment
Summary: 1 Stars
What a disappointment this book was! This from an author who has written such enjoyable, gripping books and given me many hours of pleasure; for example Plum Island and The Lion's Game. If not for that history, I would never have finished the book; I kept hoping he was going to display some of his old skills.
Half way through the book one gets the picture that there will be no clear ending. But this book was just so silly. Well, yes, there was a rocket that downed TWA Flight 800 but we are not going to tell you why it happened or who exactly did it or give a reason for the cover up or tell you planned it. But, trust us, there is strong, compelling, sure evidence that there was a rocket and yes, there is a conspiracy but conveniently, the September 11th attacks will stop the explanations.
This author has written some interesting books but this one has really turned me of him. I read the entire book because I kept hoping it would improve. The dialogue in some places was great but the characterizations were, I thought, quite weak. For example, I didn't get any kind of feeling for Kate; she was a bit of a cipher. Bottom line, I felt cheated by the book. A gripping beginning with an interesting premise that ultimately withers away to an overly convenient cop-out ending.
Book Review: A disappointment
Summary: 3 Stars
I've been a Demille fan for quite a while now. But after finishing Night Fall, I'm wondering if I will ever pick up another of DeMille's books in hard cover. I may still read his work, always hoping for a return to the great writing of General's Daughter, but I'll wait for the paperback, thank you.
It's a really simple premise, John Corey, now with the FBI Anti-Terrorist Task Force is asked by his wife to look into the TWA Flight 800 tragedy. Despite his belief that the explosion of Flight 800 was an accident, Corey decides to investigate on his own time. The results is a police procedural where Corey follows the clues in a slow methodical fashion.
Okay, I thought, I enjoy police procedurals, I'd invest some time in what I hoped was going to be a real page turner. And up to a certain point, it was. Then I realized where the plot was headed. I kept thinking, no, this can't be what DeMille intends. But unfortunately it was his intention. The ending was so unsatisfactory, I was left wondering where the rest of the book was. Surely when a writer pens a mystery he has an obligation to his readers to give them some answers? There were none here, and I was left feeling that all I'd read was a 300+ page buildup to a gimmicky ending.