Falling Off Air
by Catherine Sampson
Published by Mysterious Press
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Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart
Not too long ago I reviewed Catherine Sampson’s second novel, Out of Mind. Although the critics didn’t like it, I did. So much so that I looked up her first novel, Falling Off Air, and anything else I could find by Sampson. Publishers Weekly called Sampson’s debut novel, Falling Off Air, “a smooth read…(giving) scant attention to setting and the plot unfolds slowly at first, but about midway through, the pace picks up and the last quarter is a first-rate read.” Personally, I found the entire story rather plodding.
In Falling Off Air, Robin watches as one of her neighbors, well-known philanthropist Paula Carmichael, falls to her death at her London home. There is much speculation as to why. It seems that Paula and journalist Adam Wills, father to Robin’s two-year-old twins, were filming a documentary about Paula’s work. But the film was never completed. Instead, Adam turns up dead, a victim of a hit-and-run.
That’s too much coincidence for Robin, so she begins to sleuth around, especially after she is arrested and suspected in Adam’s death, since it was her car that killed him.
I agree with Publishers Weekly in that “Ballantyne makes for an unusual sleuth: how many detectives need to first hire a babysitter before going out to save the world?”
I did learn in my investigations, that Sampson has a third novel featuring Robin Ballantyne, but it has yet to find a U.S. publisher. After reading Falling Off Air, I’m not as inclined to the order that third novel as I was after I finished Out of Mind. In all honesty, after reading Falling Off Air, I was tired of reading about raising children, which is the meat of this novel. Armchair Interviews says: Heed this reviewer’s comments.
Author’s Web site: http://www.CatherineSampson.com