Thriller Spotlight with Joel C. Rosenberg

I write international thrillers, meaning that rarely will I stay in one country for the entire book. Much of that is due to my own passion for geopolitics—the way that nations interact with one another, especially due to their specific geographical location. A regional or global landscape is not unusual in the thriller genre, and often you will find authors “country-hopping” from one book to another because it broadens the scope of the plot and increases the opportunities for elaborating on the rare and the exotic.

Other authors, however, will limit the borders of their plot to a single state or even one city. But imagine confining a book to one neighborhood or even a single airplane cockpit. That is what was attempted by the authors of the two books that are highlighted in this month’s “Thriller Spotlight.” And they pulled it off spectacularly!

Matthew Betley is the author of the four-book Logan West thriller series, as well as a novella set in the Logan West universe. In August of this year, Betley released his fifth full-length novel, a stand-alone thriller titled The Neighborhood. While the title might give you Garrison Keillor vibes, the book itself is far from any prairie home. Described by bestselling author Chris Hauty as “Die Hard in a gated community,” this story will keep you on the edge of your seat.

What do you do when a bunch of men impersonating police officers roll into your neighborhood, block the only roads in and out, and begin rounding people up and shooting some of them? If you’re Zack Chambers, ex–CIA agent and deadly operative, you gather your child’s babysitter and a few other neighbors and you set to work. Betley is a former Marine scout sniper platoon commander, infantry officer, and ground intelligence officer with deployments in Djibouti and Iraq. His military experience comes through in his understanding of weaponry and tactics. However, he is able to communicate this information as part of the story, rather than presenting a detailed tour through a weapons cache.

As the plot progresses, the identity of the attackers and the mystery of their target are gradually revealed. The action carries throughout, and when Zack Chambers’s equally deadly brother, Nick, shows up, the reader is launched on a wild ride to the finish. Betley presents a big story in a limited setting, and it is well worth the read.

The second thriller in the spotlight is a debut novel that has taken the book-reading public by storm. Falling, by T. J. Newman, was released in May and hit number one on the New York Times Best Sellers List, garnering endorsements from the likes of James Patterson, Lee Child, and Don Winslow. Because Newman is a first-time author, her book was met with skepticism by many. Is this just all hype? Is Simon & Schuster rolling out a public relations barrage in order to cover a mediocre product? But then people began reading the book, the positive reviews started piling up, and Newman’s novel about an airline pilot facing the most difficult decision of his life took off. And yes, the pun was absolutely intended.

Bill Hoffman is a pilot for Coastal Airways. Not long after he leveled off the Airbus A320 he was flying from Los Angeles to New York, he received a text from his wife’s phone. He opened the message and in it found a picture of his wife, preteen son, and baby daughter. His wife and son had explosive-laden suicide vests strapped to their bodies. Thus begins a wild ride in which terrorists give Hoffman an impossible choice: crash the plane when and where we tell you or your family will be blown to pieces.

It’s true that Newman, the author, relieves the claustrophobia of the cockpit at times through FBI agent Theo Baldwin, who is working the case on the ground. But the story she creates within the cramped quarters at the front of the plane is beautiful. In my “Writer’s Corner” article this month I talk about character development. This is where Newman excels, and you will very quickly find yourself pulling not just for Bill and his wife, Carrie, but also Jo, the chief flight attendant, and her crew.

The story itself is excellent, as is the story of its writing. T. J. Newman worked as a flight attendant for Virgin America and Alaska Airlines for the decade leading up to 2021. Much of this novel of a terrorist attack on an airplane was written by Newman during cross-country red-eye flights while her passengers safely dozed in the cabin. The language does get a little strong at times. But overall, this is a compelling story that reaches well beyond the limited space of its setting.

—Joel C. Rosenberg