Customer Reviews

Learning to Fly: A Thriller

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Free Meeker, a nineteen-year-old free spirit and soon to be an unwed mother is involved in a fatal pile up on a highway blinded by a dust storm. She survives but a fellow passenger, a hitchhiker, named Lydia, is killed. Lydia was running away from an abusive relationship with her husband. After finding a gym bag filled with drug money, Free decides to assume Lydia's identity and run away to start a new life for herself and her, as yet, unborn child. Of course, life is never so simple. Looking for Lydia is her enraged husband and Don Cannon, a drug dealer who desperately needs the money that Free has found or he will, himself, be killed.
April Henry has written a stand-alone novel with the subtext of "a thriller", Actually, LEARNING TO FLY should be more properly called a novel of suspense. April's novel is character driven while most true thrillers would be considered plot driven. The difference, as I see it, between the two is that the pacing would be much more rapid with the plot driven thrillers. The character driven thrillers must, by definition, move slower to allow the reader the time to get to know the character. April succeeds in creating an interesting yet sympathetic figure in Free Meeker. There are some character motivations that were not completely explained such as why a young policeman would be interested in an unwed pregnant woman. Otherwise, LEARNING TO FLY is a well-written novel that should appeal to readers on the beach or in the air. Personally, I would like to see a bit of a tighter plot but this one certainly succeeds as is.

I picked this up because I am originally from Oregon and get a kick out of reading books based in or about my home state. I didn't know what it would be about nor have I read any of April Henry's other books, so I blindly started reading the story of Free Meeker.

Free is a teenager who makes her living as a pet groomer, she shaves her head and is (obviously by her name) the child of hippie parents. Free is also dating a not so nice guy who is cheating on her. Things don't seem to be going so great for her when she finds out that she is pregnant. She decides to drive to Portland to tell her parents.

The five-hour drive from Medford to Portland is usually uneventful, but on this day Free picks up a hitchhiker, a woman named Lynda, and there's a dust storm that causes a horrible pileup on the freeway. Lynda is killed in the accident. Free swipes her wallet and then meets a man who is desperate to find his bag, so she helps him. They find the bag, but then the man dies.

So what's in the bag? A whole lot of money!

Free discovers herself in a unique situation. Her name is on the list of those who perished on the freeway, she has a wallet with Lynda's identification and a bag full of money ($740,000 to be exact). With not much to leave behind, she decides she'll take this opportunity to reinvent herself, buy a wig, get an apartment.

Only there are people who want that money back. And a man who is pissed that his wife Lynda left him. They have their sights on Free and are hot on her tail.

Oh wee! This book is a thrill ride! I had such a good time reading it and rooting for Free to make a clean getaway with all that cash. If this is any indication of what April Henry's other books are like, I'll be buying them as soon as possible.

If you are a fan of Henry's cozies, this is not quite the right book for you - but it does have a happy (kinda, sorta) ending. The writing is crisp, vivid, and effective. Oregon actually experienced the kind of dust-storm disaster so horrifically described in the opening. All of the characters are a little larger than life, which is why they are so memorable, including the City of Portland. I remember this book, enjoyed it a lot and hope you do too.

This is the first April Henry book I've read, and I really enjoyed it. I was reminded of Mary Higgins Clark -- you are kept moving-moving-moving through this book; the author gives you what you need to know and doesn't waste time with lots of extraneous narrative. The plot is great and Henry's style is easy to read; this is a terrific plane or beach book.

The main character, Free Meeker, is very likable, though I felt Henry went a little overboard in describing her parents: by the middle of the book I found myself thinking "okay, okay, they're free-spirit-go-nowhere-hippies, we GET it!" But it's effective in making Free even more sympathetic than just the opening car accident would have done. And I thought Don, the villian, was somewhat unbelievable, esp. towards the end. I just couldn't see a man in his business being anything less than completely jaded -- even given Free's "special circumstances". I found it hard to see him as the ultimate hero he became.

Overall though, this is a well-written. page-turner. Definitely a good summer read.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. The authors description of the multi car pile-up made me feel I should brace myself from oncoming cars. It's the kind of book you can't put down. At bedtime I said, just one more page. That one more page turned into three chapters. It holds your attention to the very last word...very well written.

Learning to Fly April Henry
(pg. 288 Thriller Oregon)

A freak Oregon dust storm gives Free an chance of a lifetime. She is involved in a major traffic pile up that
leaves many dead and more injured. She encounters a man screaming to save his bag even though he is
withering in pain. She retrieves the bag and cannot locate the young man. She goes to the hospital and
learns he has died. She leaves in obvious shock and checks into a hotel. In the morning she picks up the
paper to find her obituary listed among the casualties of the crash. Now Free has a dilemma, she can assume
the identify of the woman she picked up and with the cash that was in the bag begin a new life. After
deliberating this thought and realizing her parents have accepted her death she decides on a new life.
Considering the Free is also pregnant this could be the gift of a lifetime. She doesn't have to confront her
cheating boyfriend on her condition, her parents are hippies who have already gone on with their lives and
noone misses her. So this begins Free new life as she befriends a businesswoman going through a divorce
and moves in with her. She has the time of her life buying everything a new mother would want for her
child. Unknown to her two men are tracking her, her Passenger's abusive husband and Druglord who wants
his money return to him. I didn't see this story as a thriller, but more of a what if story. The thrills came
close to the end of the book and Henry just dropped them in a rushed manner and the way it was resolved
was to convenient for a realistic ending. Drop the thrill part of this novel and the plot is solid. Rating 7

Henry scripts a fast paced page turner filled with multi dimensional characters. I couldn't stop reading this book and I loved the protagonist, Free. She reminded me of just what it was we might have done wrong with all that political correctness a while back, raising our children to be back to the earth in the fanatical hippy fashion. I also was impressed by the way Henry smoothly created a remarkably believable bad guy in Don.

I loved this book. Free Meeker is an unlikely heroine, a confused young woman trying to escape a bad relationship and life. Involved in a huge multi-car pile-up on the interstate, Free assumes the identity of a woman killed in the crash. Free soon finds herself in a world of trouble, and April Henry continuously tightens the suspense and adds complications until the reader is squirming with anticipation and flying through the pages to the finish. Highly recommended.

Free Meeker is coming home from visiting her sister when she becomes involved in a fifty two-car chain-reaction accident. Although the nineteen-year-old woman is unharmed, her car is totaled and her passenger, a hitchhiker Lydia is dead. Free tries to help an injured man who is looking for a lost bag but when she finds it, the man is already dead.

When Free opens up the bag, she finds it contains $740,000 and some drugs, which she promptly throws away. She concludes that she is holding drug money and there is no way to trace it to her. She takes it intending to start a new life for herself using Lydia's identification. She isn't aware that Lydia's husband is an abuser who will do anything to track her down or that the owner of the money will kill to get it back. While these two men are tracking down "Lydia" Free lives a peaceful and secure life in Portland, never dreaming that she is in any danger.

LEARNING TO FLY is an exciting thriller that will keep readers enthralled because the action never stops happening. April Henry manages to sustain a high level of tension throughout the book without any real violence so cozy fans will appreciate this unusually refreshing story.

Harriet Klausner

This was a great premise for a story. Young girl, raised by hippies, gets a chance to reinvent herself after being involved in a freak car accident and finds a quarter of million dollars. Sounds good, right? It could have been. I liked the characters and I liked the pace until the author tried to throw the entire story together in the last 30 or so pages and then completely dropped the ball with the ending. Was the author on deadline or something because this ending just blew the entire book in my opinion.

Save your money and check it out at the library.