Mayhem in Monte Carlo

If I had to sum up this book in one word, the word would be messy.

Central to the plot is the nerve-gas hijacking' by Muslim fundamentalists of Air France Flight 64 from Paris to New York in the 1980s There are several interlocking stories set over two periods told by different voices, during the hijack and its twelfth year anniversary.

The actual hijack is told in excruciating and harrowing detail. That this is perhaps the clearest and most readable part of the book, should tell you something.

During the hijacking 22 children were released and around the anniversary things come to a head as one of the children Samantha, now an adult tries to work out who was really behind the hijacking, and why the children, now adult, appear to be dying off in unusual circumstances. Was it all a conspiracy theory?

Meanwhile a high-ranking CIA operative dies and leaves a key to his son Lowell, whose mother perished on the flight. Lowell’s mother was leaving her husband for a Jewish violinist, also a flight victim. Nothing is simple here. Lowell is instructed by his dad’s psychiatrist, to not only work out what it is for, but is ordered to keep the contents safe.

Lowell links up with Samantha who has been hounding him for years. He has been ignoring her, but now on the anniversary decides to listen to her. He works out the key from his father is the key to locker #64 (Flight 64, get it?) at the terminal for the ill-fated flight. The locker contains binders of notes and documents as will as tapes.He tries to keep it safe but only half succeeds and shares what is left of his findings (his house has been ransacked) with Samantha. They travel in a row boat to a secret place and sleep the night in a fisherman’s hut lobster netting. Anything for secrecy.

As for the adult hostages, after the children are freed, the plane, now in Iraq, is blown to smithereens. Ten men are still alive and are placed in a sarin-laced bunker, facing death when their protective gear will inevitably fail. They face a slow death, or by removing their protective head gear, a faster one. They choose the latter. With ten minutes to speak before the Saran gets them they remove their protective head-gear and tell. A Yiddish writer does a Hasidic dance, a philosopher delivers a wry deconstructive analysis, two lovers embrace, a diva sings Orlando Gibbons's metaphoric The Silver Swan. Is this meant to be poignant, to be showing the human spirit cannot be squashed? I cannot be sure. And by this time - it was near the end of the book - I didn’t care. ( )

Due Preparations for the Plague by Janette Turner Hospital focuses on characters that all have one thing in common: they all have some connection to a plane that was hijacked by terrorists thirteen years earlier. When he was sixteen, Lowell's mother was on the flight and killed during the hijacking. Lowell's life is still tormented by her death. Samantha is a survivor. She was a six year old child and allowed off the plane. She is searching declassified documents connected with the hijacking and trying to discover the identity of a shadowy agent called Salamander. Additionally, it seems that all those connected with the hijacking are dying mysterious deaths. After Lowell's father dies and leaves him a bag filled with documents and tapes about the hijacking, he and Samantha team up.

This is a psychological thriller that deals with terrorism and espionage. It will play on your emotions as it tells a tale of deceit and deception and how one man's duplicity affects the lives of many. The story switches narrators and points-of-view, drawing out surprising connections between the people involved and offering the reader more insight into the whole terrifying event.
Certainly recent events give Due Preparations for the Plague a poignancy and timelessness that bodes well for the lasting impact it has on the reader. It could be a real story. The paranoia running rampant through the characters could be a legitimate feeling that they should be paying attention to. Today we know there are terrorists, unethical political maneuvers, humans used as collateral, and chemical warfare.

Due Preparations for the Plague also deals with the psychological destruction of personal loss and death. As the overleaf quote, from Daniel Defoe's Due Preparations For the Plague says: "I have often asked myself what I mean by preparations for the plague... and I think that preparations for the plague are preparations for death. But what is it to make preparations for death? or what preparations are proper to be made for death?" Exactly what preparations can you make for your own death that are truly beneficial and not simply reactions to the obvious? What risks must be taken? What must we be willing to leave behind?

Due Preparations For the Plague is a beautifully written literary novel with sharp characterizations. Every little detail is also well researched and woven seamlessly into the plot. The different narrators are fully formed and developed characters; each of them has a distinct and individual voice. While this is a political thriller that requires some effort and concentration to read, in the end you will feel your time was well spent. "To state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise." Albert Camus, The Plague

Very Highly Recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

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I felt very glad that I didn't have any flight scheduled in the coming months. This was not a comforting read and I had no idea of the story line when I started this. I have another book by this author on my shelves and will be interested to see what the subject matter is. I felt no real connection to any of the characters and perhaps I wasn't totally convinced by the plot. I didn't feel that the deaths of the survivors was fully explained. ( )

Read very quickly as I could not put it down. Well written ... emotional for me and I am still left haunted by it. There were notes on the author and book at the end of the copy that I had which I found interesting. Will definitely read more by this author. ( )

Gripping! Full of intrigue and intricate detail but with believeable characters. This novel is about the aftermath of a plane hijacking and how the survivors cope with their knowledge of what happened and with the fact that they are being killed off. The twists and turns made this unputdownable! ( )