Welcome to Day 2 of our Bookbag tour, which brings us to Blamed by Dana Griffin.

As you may have discerned from the cover, Blamed is an airline thriller. It stars Bill Kurz, a veteran airline pilot who begins his story in the cockpit of his crashed airplane.

The crushing pain radiating up from my legs yanked me out of unconsciousness. My arms dangled above my head and my hands rested on the overhead panel of the aircraft. Comprehending I was upside down was difficult to grasp with the fear of blacking out again threatening to overtake me.

Wind whistled through the smashed cockpit windows, ruffling my hair. Shards of glass littered the overhead panel. Smoke that stank of burned jet fuel and something else I couldn’t place drifted in.

As he recovers, Bill finds himself mired in an investigation, one that says he’s responsible for the crash that killed dozens, including his copilot. But unable to live with the guilt, Bill isn’t taking the “evidence” at face value. He scours the ranks of his airline and the NTSB, searching for the truth, and hopefully, for absolution.

While reading, I found myself literally holding my breath at times. Griffin does a fantastic job of relaying the emotions of the character. We mourn with Bill, we feel the injustice of the charges, and we fear for his career and his life right along with him. We rejoice when he has a success and crash (pun intended) when his search for truth is blocked. Bill’s journey is an example of how character agency works well in a story.

Also in my Bookbag: Black

What B titles are in your Bookbag?