This read was "a wild one"! It reads like a proposed screen play for the next Joel & Ethan Coen movie featuring a very large cast. If you readers have yet to start this one, allow me to make one suggestion. Keep a pad and pencil beside you and assume the role of the casting agent for the movie. List the many characters and match them and their particular "charms" to the actress/actor best fitting the role.
IMHO, the most colorful characters are Miami FBI Special Agent Ryan Fredericks, Miami PD Decretive Alvarez, and the detective's side kick "patrolman" Tom. The two Townsend daughters also have great roles. I know the perfect Atlanta-area young actress sisters to play them. They played in the movie "We Bought A Zoo". They both have TV series chops.
The author's choice of main character is a four-stripe captain for a large, fictitious airline big enough to have its own pilots' union (spoiler alert). Author Abend flies for American Airlines. Captain Hart is a flawed character with many demons to fight. He doesn't overcome any of them, setting us up for sequels.
This is Abend's first novel. There are a few "autobiographical" hints sprinkled through his novel. Look for pilot reluctance to volunteer to work for the union, pilot reluctance to pay union dues, pilot anger at the union agreeing to pay cuts to avoid the airline going bankrupt, pilot and flight attendant union squabbles over drinking water supplies at layover cities with bad water, etc. There is also a lot of dry humor between the characters that the Coen brothers won't even have to edit out. The Coen brothers also have some sex scenes to film.
As a retired air safety investigator (32 of them), I've started a quest to read as many air safety investigation novels as I can in my remaining days above room temperature. After about a dozen, I've noted some similarities. NEVER open a hotel/motel room door when someone knocks on it. Many authors write investigator characters who do "Lone Ranger" investigations. It doesn't happen in the real world. Abend got it right with his description of the NTSB process of the party system, press attention, specialized groups (the ICAO Annex 13 describes the internationally-agreed report format with each section requiring a specialized group), group chairmen, Investigator-in-Charge (IIC), quickly-arranged work space with electrical outlets for the computers and a huge coffee pot, and twice-daily progress meetings with all team members (at least the ones present - many are on the road gathering more data).
The crew union members are part of the investigation process for many reasons. Abend does a good job of describing why. I'm anxiously awaiting Captain Abend's next novel.
I only found one typo, which is rare these days.
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