Airborne

Airborne is the perfect story for this time and this place. It’s not about COVID-19, but it is about a deadly virus. More amazing, however, is the fact that DiAnn Mills wrote the story several years ago. Who could have predicted that Airborne would be released in the middle of a global pandemic?

The story follows FBI agent Heather Lawrence. En route to a needed vacation in Germany, Heather’s flight is sabotaged by a deadly virus outbreak. People are dying, but not everyone. Heather seems immune to it, as do others. The flight is diverted to New York, where the sick are hospitalized and the healthy are quarantined. The prime suspect is Heather’s soon-to-be-ex husband, a doctor who specializes in studying viruses just like this one. As more passengers from the plane die, the race is on to identify and seize the person responsible before there’s another outbreak.

If you think that’s an awful lot of story for one book, you’re right. But it’s an awesome story! Let me tell you why.

A story about a virus could easily get bogged down by the science. That didn’t happen. There’s actually very little science, yet I didn’t feel anything was lacking in that area. We learn what we need to know about the virus and nothing more. I much appreciated that. I think some authors try to impress their readers by throwing in technical, scientific tidbits that serve no other purpose. This author must feel that less is more – and it is.

DiAnn Mills may not have dazzled me with science (thank you), but she did dazzle me with the in-depth characters. She goes deep into the relationship between Heather and her husband. How did the fabric of their marriage get so thin? Could Heather do her duty to the country if it meant sending her husband to prison? Will her husband discover the secret she’s been keeping?  We learn the answers to all these questions and more.

An underlying theme to the marital problems is religion. Heather is religious and her doctor husband is an atheist. Some of the other characters also share their views on religion. I thought the religious overtones were weaved very nicely throughout the story.

In trying to determine who the real antagonist is, I felt like Mills put the characters in front of us like they were in a police line up. We learn a little more about each potential antagonist as the story goes on. They each have their reasons, and it’s very easy to dislike them. It could be any one of them.

I thought the point-of-view (POV) used by the author was very interesting. The entire story was told in the third person, except for the chapters explicitly in the mind of the antagonist. Those were told in the first person. There was no way I could discern who it was based on those chapters, but it does allow the reader to get inside the head of a very evil and nasty person.

The pacing was on point. I can’t really say too much about it without giving spoilers, but I will say that once the steady pace begins to quicken into the climax, it’s likely you won’t want to put it down. I didn’t.

The character arcs were appropriate, and the editing was commendable.

If you or anyone you know has been impacted by COVID-19, you should read this story. Maybe you can see some light at the end of the tunnel. (But it could be the train.)

I’m a fan of DiAnn Mills, and this story did not disappoint me. I highly recommend it.