Time for another round of Yvonne’s Shorties! This time around a psychological thriller partly set on a plane I really enjoyed and the final book of a crime thriller series that didn’t work as well as the previous books.

Title: Final Call
Author: Alex Lake
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
First published: June 8th 2023
Publisher: HarperCollins
Finished reading: April 6th 2024
Pages: 400

“The past fell away. The future was yet to come.”

REVIEW

I can somehow never resist stories that are at least partly set on a plane, so it is easy to understand why Final Call ended up making its way on my TBR. I was in the mood for something fast and entertaining, and then I remembered this title left over from my March TBR and decided to give in. I’ve been meaning to try Alex Lake‘s books for a while now, and I have to say his work made an excellent first impression! The short and snappy chapters make it really easy to keep turning those pages, and I had a fantastic time discovering the pilot’s motivations behind the plane hijack. This story uses a multiple POV structure, as we hear from all seven plane passengers as well as the pilot and even more characters in the 2018 flashback chapters. It can be a bit tricky to keep them all apart in the beginning, but somehow the many POV structures did work well in Final Call. I think it was because it added even more tension and urgency, and the main focus is on the plot and not the character development in the first place. I didn’t expect the 2018 flashbacks or reason behind the hijack at all, but it was interesting to see everything unfold. Some of it had a bit of a conspiracy vibe and things can be said about the credibility of the plot, but I personally was having too much fun to truly be bothered by it. And what a way to go out with a bang! I will definitely be reading more of this author in the future.

Title: Mercy
(Atlee Pine #4)
Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: November 16th 2021
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Finished reading: April 8th 2024
Pages: 432

“She didn’t like people looking for her. She didn’t want to be found. Only bad things could happen from that.”

REVIEW

WARNING: it’s another unpopular opinion!!

I still can’t believe I only discovered David Baldacci’s writing this year, but he is quickly turning into a new favorite. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Atlee Pine books so far, so I decided to just give in and read the fourth and final book… Sadly I have to say that as far as conclusions come, this final book was a bit underwhelming for me. It’s not necessarily a bad read, but quite different from the first three books and I really missed spending more time with dynamic duo Pine and Blum. They are still there, but less present as a completely new POV pops up in the form of El Cain. I don’t want to give away too much to avoid spoilers, but while I loved the idea behind this POV, I couldn’t stand El Cain as a character. She was SO hard to warm up to, and I really struggled every time I had to spend time with her POV. Pine and Blum do appear as well, and I did love spending time with this duo, but it was just not enough for me this time around. I also wasn’t a fan of the focus on racism/cult angle, which sounded a bit too political to my taste… And the pace itself was initially a lot slower than I expected. I can’t deny that this story goes out with a bang though! But all in all Mercy still wasn’t quite up to the same standard as the previous three books for me.

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