I have always enjoyed Michael Crichton’s writing style. He tends to write in blocks of thoughts and actions, uses new lines to emphasize something that the character feels is important, and jams just enough raw data into his books to make them real, but not enough to turn off most readers.
Airframe was written very much in this same Michael Crichton style – though that may be the only reason I was entertained by the book.
Airframe’s story is centered around Casey Singleton, an employee of an aircraft manufacturer, who finds herself with about one week to figure out what happened on a flight that killed a few people and injured many. The story has a few twists, like most good stories do, in that Singleton is being setup by her bosses to take a fall for the company, that the company itself has had a track record of problems with the plane that aren’t easily explained in a single sentence, and a popular TV-news program is about to run a story on her company’s "deathtrap" of a plane.
Airframe is captivating, no doubt. Again, because I like the way Crichton moves through stories I was able to read this book with ease and without let up. It was never a chore. But when I was finished with the story it didn’t make me want to start again.
If you’re a Crichton fan, I suggest giving this a read – preferably when you are on a plane, as I was when I began reading this book. It makes the story a little more fun.