Airborne

Airborne
By: DiAnn Mills

Sure, it’s a clean read, and I do appreciate that, but I just can’t get to the raving reviews so many others can. Feel free to read my reasoning below. I know it seems like I’m writing spoilers, but I’m really not.

Mills doesn’t waste any time getting into it. We immediately find out a virus has been unleashed on passengers of an airborne flight. Considering our current Covid situation, I was intrigued by this premise and wanted to give this book a chance, even though I’m fairly picky about my Christian authors (due to hokey-ness or preachy-ness).

And here is Mills’ first major mistake: the FBI’s first major suspect in this act of bioterrorism. The main character, FBI agent Heather Lawrence, is on the plane. By herself- because her husband has been begging her for a divorce. Her husband also happens to work for the CDC researching and studying viruses and is passionate about helping people and finding cures. Which this all apparently makes the perfect storm. Clearly he MUST have released the virus to kill his wife so he can finally be free from her. And even though there is no other evidence linking him to the crime, and even though his life work is stopping viruses, it makes perfect sense that he has turned so evil that he is willing to kill hundreds of people (no, not the thousands that Covid has, just hundreds because we’re going BIG on this story) just to kill his wife who won’t sign divorce papers. I mean if that’s not 0 to 100 in 2.5 seconds I don’t know what is.

And not only does the FBI strongly believe they have the culprit, and all the media, and every person who watched the news, but his own Christian wife who knows him better than anyone is wondering if he did it too. People fall out of love (unfortunately) all the time. But they either divorce or one of them kills the other in a far more normal and accessible way- not releasing a never before seen virus on an international plane with the potential for a global pandemic. Someone doesn’t ‘just become’ that evil.

And then! We are told Heather has a secret! Suspense! What could it be?! Well, all we have to do is read one more page to find out what it is! She’s pregnant! Exit suspense. And then she tells everyone. I guess she doesn’t need it to be a secret anymore. And also her evil terrorist husband doesn’t even care.

And then! Her husband claims innocence and seeks to clear his name. He uncovers way more convincing and practical evidence on another suspect than what they have on him, gives it to the FBI and they say, ‘That’s pretty far-fetched, man. We’re going to need more evidence than that that will stand up in court. Why don’t you let the professionals do their job?’

And then! Heather decides she was wrong about him and decides he could not have been so evil and actually maybe they should get back together. Oh, shoot, he hates God, though. Never mind, not an option.

And then! In the middle of all this terrible chaos, Heather has the NERVE to eat ice cream. And I quote:

“Had she lost her mind? People were dying. A virus had the potential to kill people around the world. And she was hungry? Embarrassing. Shameful. And true.”

And then! Heather is talking to her husband and lists off the three suspects who have died over the course of the investigation. Then says, ‘And a woman was murdered here but no one is investigating.’ Suspense! Just kidding. That’s the first and last time we hear of this murdered woman. She matters for nothing. Move along. No one wants to hear about an unidentified woman being murdered.

Let’s also mention Mills’ sentence structure. Way too many sentences structured like this one. Can’t stand these. Don’t have a subject. Or her sentences just don’t make sense, several times I had to reread things to understand. And so much of her dialogue was stilted. Vocabulary that was unnatural in normal conversations. People jumping from one topic to something completely different in content or tone one sentence later. Back and forth.

Sooo.... some people love this book, and if you’re one of them, more power to ya. I’m not going to say ‘no one read this.’ *shrugs*

But in the words of Randy Jackson, “It’s a no for me dawg.”

**Received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**