Book Review: Tailspin by Catherine Coulter

When a small plane carrying FBI Special Agent Jackson Jack Crowne makes a crash landing in mountainous Parlow, Ky., his friends FBI Special Agents Dillon Savitch and Lacey Sherlock fly by helicopter from Washington, D.C., to the scene. Jack survives the crash, aided by Rachael Abbott, a young woman who's returning to Parlow, her childhood home, after escaping an attempt to drown her in a Maryland lake. After Rachael reveals that she's the illegitimate daughter of the late Maryland senator John James Abbott, whose siblings she suspects are trying to kill her, the FBI agents agree to help. As further attempts on Rachael's life occur, the attraction grows between her and Jack.

Review: Overall predictable but not a terrible read. Generally, Coulter's books have enjoyable characters, clear plots and precise timing for lack of better phrasing. In this book, I felt that she was trying to tie too much information into the plot and as a result the book feels a little sloppy and rushed, not to mention that the characters are one dimensional. I am not a happy reader if I can't connect to the characters and the characters in this book just did not feel at all real to me. Dillion and Lacey are the perfect couple with the perfect child and the only issues they have are work related, what with Dillion almost being shot and Lacey actually being shot. As for Rachel and Jack, both characters are flat and for lack of a better term, boring.

The story in itself had a lot of potential with a money obsessed family attempting and succeeding in murdering those standing in their way as well as the side story of Dr. MacLean and the attempts on his life that ultimately end in him committing suicide. I just felt that Coulter could have spent a little more time letting everyone get to know the characters which in turn would have made the reader more in tune with the characters trials and would have made the book much more suspenseful in my opinion.

Plans: Sending the book on to the next person in the ring.

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