Seat 7a
Published 2026-08-14 13:52:11
Book info
- Author
- Year 2017
- Genres
- Format Hardback
- Pages 416
You know your fear is irrational, you've checked the statistics. Flying is safer than driving - nineteen times safer. Irrational, perhaps. But you're not wrong.
Mats Krüger is terrified of flying. But his daughter, Nele, is about to give birth to his first grandchild, so, for once, he's taking the risk and making the thirteen-hour flight from Buenos Aires to Berlin.
Of course, he's taken precautions. He's bought the five statistically safest seats on the plane, as well as seat 7A - the spot where you are most likely to die in a plane accident - so no one can sit there. Just in case.
But Mats has to give up seat 7A to another passenger. Moments later, he receives a phone call. Nele has been kidnapped. The caller has a single demand.
Convince the pilot to crash the plane. Or Nele dies.
Thoughts
I hate to fly, so a thriller about a guy who has a fear of flying and ends up embroiled in a plane-related terrorist act sounded like... well, a nightmare, but a good read! I was on the back foot right from the start because I couldn't understand who would buy five tickets on the same plane? If Mats was that nervous about it, he should have taken a boat!
The first few pages of this book have a good hook, you want to read on, but it very quickly takes a nose-dive and never recovers. A thriller needs a good reason to exist, and the what and why are too abstract in this.
A steward who can be 'unprogrammed' to essentially become a weapon and crash a plane. How does that work? These are skills I didn't know psychiatrist's had! A fanatical vegan whose motives have absolutely nothing to do with air travel? Firstly, quite insulting to vegans and secondly, entirely unconnected and baffling. And I know I shouldn't keep going on about the five plane tickets, but how rich is this guy?
If you're going to read this, you need to know it's horrible. Nele, Mats' daughter, is actively in labour when she gets kidnapped, so there's a lot of screaming, a lot of bodily fluids, it's all entirely gross and unnecessary.
I hadn't realised as I was reading that the book is translated, although I did know the author was German, so that's on me for not connecting the dots. I don't think it impacted the story too much, but the writing was a bit stiff in places which could be down to the translation.
I honestly wish I'd stopped reading this and not bothered to get to the end. It wasn't a pleasant read and it wasn't a satisfying thriller. 1 out of 5.
Rating: 1 / 5