Dana HaynesRecensioni

Not my usual genre of mystery, but read it with my bookclub and I found it an entertaining read. Interesting characters and some fun dialog.½

The most laudable thing that can be said about Crashers is that it's fun. And it definitely is that -- lazy brain candy on a Saturday afternoon/Law and Order marathon sort of fun. It's fast-paced romp, with lots of action, a plot-twist or two and lots of beautiful, charismatic characters.

And that's where the praise ends. This reads like a script for a summer movie or a CSI "Special Episode." It is filled with an appropriately diverse cast (for some, unknown, reason the ethnic background of even the most trivial of characters is given. While the supporting cast contains a Korean man, three African Americans, a Brit, an Israeli, a handful of Irish men, an Arab American and an Asian American, the main cast is white -- very TV.) More time is spent describing how beautiful, handsome, rugged and sexy each character is than really giving any personality, which makes it difficult to tell who's talking without dialogue tags.

The action is really designed to be cinematic. I had a lot of fun picturing in my head how the scenes would look, but there aren't really any twists to engage the imagination of the reader.

But, where the Crashers really falls down is the writing. As I said, the plot is fun, the characters are pretty, there's lots of action, overall it would be about as enjoyable as a weak Dan Brown novel, if not for the terrible writing. To be fair, I received an advance copy, which I assume (from the number of typos) is still undergoing some editing. That being said, the dangling participles, heavy handed dialogue-tagging and awkward exposition and narration were so distracting that finishing the book was a chore that I completed because I got the book from First Reads. Had I bought the book, I probably would have given up on it.

Michael Patrick Finnigan had been a cop in New York and a US Marshal. When his destiny introduced him to Spanish intelligence officer, Katalin Fiero Dahar, he found a partner for his new venture, eventually called St. Nicholas Salvage and Wrecking. Together, they operate this bounty hunting company, providing their services mostly for a judge who is part of the International Criminal Court and use their abilities to go after offenders that the Court has been unable to apprehend. Their latest mission involves the kidnapping and sale of young Middle Eastern children, but finding the culprits and bringing them to justice might prove tougher than they ever imagined.

St. Nicholas Salvage and Wrecking would make an excellent action film filled with political intrigue, international settings, and rollicking adventure. Told in third person, the book does not give the reader much opportunity to develop a deep connection with the characters, but the two protagonists are given a little more opportunity for growth than the other characters in the story. Although this is not the type of story that I would normally read, it did provide entertainment. Overall, St. Nicholas Salvage and Wrecking is a good beginning for this exciting caper series. 3 1/2 stars

Skip it, horribly written, poorly drawn characters.

I'm a sucker for airline/NTSB thrillers, and this one is one of the best! Not only that, but the fact that it takes place (mostly) in Oregon is the icing on the cake. Loved the storyline and characters - and can't wait for the next book!

WOW! Could not put it down! incredible and dangerous implications for the technology we unthinkingly use everyday. This was a cliffhanger- all the way through, with nice little dalliances into romance and matters of the heart- Plane crashes, huge investigations,FBI, NCIB and more. I especially like the way the investigation played out in the timeline from initial crash point. Reading about the underpinnings of our investigative bodies and how they manage a scene was a big draw for me. I like knowing how things work...

A thriller that will keep you turning the pages, CRASHERS, the new novel by Oregon author Dana Haynes, follows NTSB investigators as they try to solve the cause of an airplane crash just minutes after it leaves the Portland International Airport.
This book is great for the arm-chair detective as the FBI becomes involved in the investigation after it is determined that the plane was sabotaged, because one of them may be a mole. There is plenty of technical jargon for geeks and Haynes does a good job of building believable characters. Throw in an Irish radical group and a former Israeli intelligence agent and you have one who-do-you-trust classic.
A very minor flaw is that there are a couple of situations where you have to suspend your disbelief at the coincidences but otherwise there is so much excitement and surprises I’m willing to overlook this. My jaw actually dropped when I read the last sentences of the first chapter. There are other places where I had to wail, “Noooo!” You can never tell what is going to happen next.
If you like a fast-paced thriller, I highly recommend CRASHERS!

I loved the fast-paced and intriguing plot, the moral and ethical questions that were explored, the characters and they way they were developed over the course of the novel, the sharp dialog as well as the occasional unexpected humor. A thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying read.

Frenetically fast-paced and fun international thriller. Conspiracies, double crosses and drones--oh my!

This is the second book in the NTSB Crashers series.

In this novel its a few of the Crashers who are in a plane crash themselves. Of course, they don't start out investigating their own plane's crash so we get to meet a whole lotta new Crashers.

The plot of the novel concerns national security and a super duper secret device that is scary as hell, and yet I could see most of what happened on the page happening in the real world. Which was a bit disturbing because it was quite an interesting story.

I think the strongest part of the book were the characters. Each one is amazingly distinct with his or her own sound, foibles, accent, not to mention their dress.

I thought one of the weakest parts of the story was just how short some of the scenes were. It seemed like it was done to keep the story 'moving', but instead it made everything seem a bit rushed, a bit jittery.

But, on the whole it was as solid a thriller as I've read in a while. The plot kept me guessing most of the way, and some of the plot twists were truly immense. A solid three stars. And if Haynes writes another book in the series I'll probably read it too.

Very very intense thriller. Hard to put down (I read almost the whole thing in one ginormous gulp this evening. Got a headache but it was worth it). Engaging characters with snappy dialogue. I look forward to his next books!

Very very intense thriller. Hard to put down (I read almost the whole thing in one ginormous gulp this evening. Got a headache but it was worth it). Engaging characters with snappy dialogue. I look forward to his next books!

A fun thriller! Really enjoyed it.

The best thriller yet by Dana Haynes.

Great thriller read - Complex, action packed, a kick-ass lady heroine.
Daria Gibron is cunningly set up as a link to a terrorist and every intelligence agency is after her. The set up is a distraction from a horrifying plot and Daria must actually team up with the terrorist to prevent disaster. I'd put her up against James Bond any day. This is one dangerous lady.

Crashers apparently are the people, the team from the NTSB that get called in when a plane crashes in the US. Because of this there were quite a few characters in t his piece. But, the author was pretty good about distinguishing the characters, so, for the most part I didn't get the characters confused.

It's categorized as a thriller and it's one of the purest I've read in a while. The author doesn't try to hide the antagonist or his motivations. It is just one long chase, though there is the question of how the plane went down, mechanically at least.

I know nearly nothing about planes, piloting, etc., so I Don't know how accurate that stuff was, but it all at least seemed plausible to me.

The only part that was weird and didn't seem to flow at all like the rest of the story was the relationship between Kiki and Tommy. Honestly there was more chemistry between Isaiah and Tommy or even Peter and Tommy than between Kiki and Tommy. But, that wasn't central to the plot and the rest of the book and how well it was paced made up for the bad love/like connection.

"Crashers" is a strong novel with solid characters dealing with the mysterious crash of a jumbo jetliner. The main characters are the "crashers" from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). After the plane plummets into the soil of the Oregon countryside, the reps from the NTSB quickly gather to reconstruct the flight and reasons for the disaster.

As the researchers dig deeper and deeper into the mystery, they soon begin to question whether the crash was due to pilot error or something they can't quite put their hands on.

Author Dana Haynes does an outstanding job providing the reader with a terrific subplot and numerous plot twists. He masterfully melds three different plot lines into a thrilling ride all the way through to the satisfying conclusion of the novel. It's my first opportunity to appreciate Haynes' craft, but hopefully not my last.

Readers who love a great political thriller filled with intrigue along the lines of those written by Nelson DeMille or Vince Flynn should love "Crashers".

air crash, NTSB investigates, good but not great

Very fast paced and a easy read. Had a hard time putting the book down. They were off a on few things about the NTSB. But for a fiction book it was very good.

I picked up an advance copy of this at last year's PLA Conference in Portland. It's been sitting on my bookshelf ever since and I finally picked it up and gave it a shot. It reads like an action movie (but much better than Snakes on a Plane). The story is about a group of experts ("crashers") who are investigating a plane crash and uncover a rather unusual conspiracy. My only complaint would be that there are soooo many characters that it was sometimes a chore to keep them all straight. It's an easy, quick read that will keep your attention.

I gave this book three stars because it held my interest and provided a fascinating look inside plane crash investigations. In terms of recommending it, I do so cautiously. The style is uneven and the characters are fantastical. The bad guys are homely, plump and sweaty. The good guys are startlingly handsome or beautiful. There are product placement references in nearly every sentence. It's chock-full of unlikely coincidences. Before you open this book, you have to remove your disbelief and put it on a shelf somewhere.

And yet, I read it from cover to cover and was entertained.

A team of airplane crash investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are looking into why a large commercial jet crashed soon after takeoff in the pacific northwest. With a twist of potential terrorism thrown in, the case takes sudden, although as written predictable, turns until it is ultimately resolved.

I picked up this book after going through the list of LibraryThing Early Reviewer requests that I wasn't selected to receive. The quick pace at the beginning of the book hooked me, but in the end I was left unsatisfied. I don't know how true-to-reality the crash investigation and aeronautical components of story are, but my inability to suspend disbelief on some of the computer technology components left me wondering. (Microsoft Access plus Geospatial Information System software plus a MacBook Air plus 24 hours leads to a full motion simulation of shrapnel patterns? I don't think so.) and when things start going right in the investigation, the plot line of an unsolved crash earlier in the career of the lead investigator is suddenly dropped.

Recommended as a thriller for a quick beach read, but other than that feel free to pass.½

Crashers by Dana Haynes is a book about airplane crash inspectors, those who go to the site of an airplane crash to work out why the crash occurred based upon the crash debris, black box, etc.

I was excited to read this book, as the job of crash inspector has always greatly interested me, and the book is set in my home state of Oregon. However, I found most of the characters to be unlikeable and cardboard-like, and felt that a number of the plot twists were implausible. It was good to read from the perspective of how the crash inspectors piece together the cause of the crash, but otherwise, I didn't much enjoy it.

Not a book for those squeamish about flying (like me) but a good mystery nonetheless.

Totally entertaining in an action movie kind of way, Crashers takes as its storyline the world of the NTSB teams that investigate airplane crashes. I've always been fascinated with this kind of investigation - all the experts gathering together to perform a post-mortem on the event to the most minute of details in hopes of preventing future crashes. The only other book that I've read with this as its subject matter is my favorite of Kathy Reichs' books, Fatal Voyage so I was very excited to read this one and it did not disappoint.

After the crash of an airline in a remote grassy field in Oregon, the NTSB gathers its crew of experts to find out what happened. The core team includes a pathologist, a "mad bomber," a "sonar witch," a pilot, several engineers, and a 16-year-old girl who is also a computer whiz (and who ultimately shows the whole team the truth of what's happened). The characters feel plausible as do their interactions. There's plenty of media wrangling and politics and fighting with corporate interests along with good old-fashioned terrorist fun as the team is joined by the FBI on behalf of an asset, an ex-Israeli agent who embeds herself into the group of terrorists.

This is a fast-paced, competent thriller that looks to be the start of a new series with a new spin on the genre. Fun, readable, and page-turning.