Scott Burroughs, a painter living in Martha’s Vineyard, takes a last minute seat on a private plane, only to have it crash into the sea 16 minutes after take off. He emerges from the depths to hear a child’s cry. Calling on all his strength (and experience as a swimmer) he manages to get the child and himself through miles of churning water to land. They are the only survivors.
The little boy, JJ, is the son of a wealthy media mogul, David Bateman. His father, mother and 9 year old sister have perished. Also on board is a Wall Street type doing shady business overseas; a pilot and crew, plus a bodyguard for the Batemans. Was the crash an accident or something more sinister?
Though this is ostensibly Scott’s story, the book also allows us to get to know the victims of the crash, giving them chapters to not only explore their character, but also give us insight into why they were on the plane and whether they had anything to do with its crash. The pieces slowly come together through these vignettes.
But the book is about more than the plane crash, it’s about the media and how it responds to news vs gossip. It asks questions about what we as the public need to know when events happen. The ‘villain’ of the piece, so to speak, is Bill Milligan, a Fox News type talking head and friend of David Bateman, who demands answers but also wants more. He wants to tell his viewers what they should be afraid of, he enjoys conspiracy theories, and he gives out information that he has obtained illegally. Scott is caught up in Milligan’s crusade, seen not as a hero but as someone with something to hide, as he tries to avoid the spotlight.
It’s an excellent examination of our current media landscape and the constant need for more and juicier content in a time of never ending news cycles. And it’s an intriguing mystery as well.
This sounds fascinating!