Night Fall: a novel by Nelson DeMille

Terrorist act or mechanical malfunction/crash of TWA 800, January 22, 2005*****


One my favourite authors, Nelson DeMille scores again with this excellent novel about the crash of TWA 800. While the novel is fiction, it is based on a true incident, the crash of TWA 800 off Long Island in July 1996 killing 230 people.

The opening scenes of the novel find an adulterous couple cavorting on a sandy beach on Long Island, videotaping themselves having sex. They witness the explosion of TWA 800 and inadvertently capture the incident on tape. Next we witness the fifth anniversary of the crash which ex-homocide detective John Corey attends with his young wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield.She suggests to him that she has lingering doubts about the cause of the crash and encourages him to pursue an independent investigation.

Corey is a maverick. Most of the novel is taken up with his stirring of the evidence and, in particular, pursuit of the couple suspected to have been on the beach that night. This results in him and Kate being banished to Yemen and Africa respectively. Upon his return Corey takes up the pursuit and locates the lady involved. He secures her copy of the videotape which clearly shows a missile en route to TWA 800. He decides to burst an apparent conspiracy of silence wide open and sets up a meeting at the posh restaurant near the top of the twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. It is 9 AM on September 11, 2001.....

I enjoyed this novel. If I have one beef it is with the contrived ending which was apparently suggested by the author's son. It lets the author off the hook from exposing who was supposedly behind the conspiracy re TWA 800.

The best Nelson DeMille novel I have read is Up Country, which features a former military detective returning to Vietnam twenty years after the end of the war to solve a case involving top American military personnel. It's a fascinating read.