| Publisher | Head of Zeus |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 05 August 2021 |
| ISBN-10 | 1838934537 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1838934538 |
| Format | paperback |
| Pages | 416 |
| Price | £ 8.99 |
Seat 7a
by
Psychiatrist Mats Krüger suffers from aviophobia but overcomes his fear to visit his pregnant daughter. Then he receives a call telling him to manipulate an old patient, now a senior stewardess, into crashing the plane, otherwise his daughter and her baby will die.
Review
The latest fiery thriller from Sebastian Fitzek should come with a health warning and anyone afraid of getting on a plane might – or might not – want to know that seat 7a is the most dangerous.
Psychiatrist Mats Krüger, fully aware of that fact supported by statistical research into plane disasters, books it out of superstition, despite his aviophobia. He also books four other seats to increase his own chances of survival in case something goes catastrophically wrong. When he decides to travel to Berlin from his voluntary exile in Buenos Aires to help his estranged daughter Nele, a long flight in luxury becomes a potential death trap. Hundreds of passengers on the way from Argentina to Germany face a crash after Mats receives a call from someone asking him to reverse the therapy he carried years ago on a former patient, Kaja, now a stewardess on the flight, otherwise Nele and his grandchild will die.
Twenty-two-year-old Nele is alone, financially insecure, frightened about the birth and extremely anxious due to her HIV, the everlasting consequence of a dirty tattoo needle. Things get worse when she is abducted on the way to the hospital for a planned caesarean. The taxi driver takes her to an abandoned meat-processing plant on the town outskirts and starts talking about inhumane treatment of cows. Modern milk production is quite horrific.
Kaja suffered profound trauma in her past and has had murderous and suicidal thoughts, which doesn’t don’t bode well for anyone if the mastermind of the whole psychotic affair succeeds in getting Mats to activate the right trigger in her mind.
If you combine these factors with a twisty plot and psychological games, the result is explosive. Mats must deal with saving Nele while terrorising Kaja. If he succeeds, the entire plane will be destroyed and he will die, along with the other passengers. He concludes that ‘there are two types of mistakes: those that make your life worse and those that end it. With that in mind, Mats must resolve own guilt and desire to help while sinking in a sea of insanity.
Aside from these exceptionally difficult situations, the unbearable tension, several skewed moral compasses and some quite frankly bonkers scenarios, this book is totally brilliant and completely absorbing. The action moves between heaven and earth, literally, and shows the precision with which the author portrays the main characters. Fitzek’s craftsmanship lies in creating masterfully nuanced characterisation and changing perceptions through the portrayal of events from several points of view. Seat 7a turns into a manual of manipulation and madness. The translation from German by Steve Anderson reinforces the feel of tension and fear. But I will get on a plane again.
Psychiatrist Mats Krüger, fully aware of that fact supported by statistical research into plane disasters, books it out of superstition, despite his aviophobia. He also books four other seats to increase his own chances of survival in case something goes catastrophically wrong. When he decides to travel to Berlin from his voluntary exile in Buenos Aires to help his estranged daughter Nele, a long flight in luxury becomes a potential death trap. Hundreds of passengers on the way from Argentina to Germany face a crash after Mats receives a call from someone asking him to reverse the therapy he carried years ago on a former patient, Kaja, now a stewardess on the flight, otherwise Nele and his grandchild will die.
Twenty-two-year-old Nele is alone, financially insecure, frightened about the birth and extremely anxious due to her HIV, the everlasting consequence of a dirty tattoo needle. Things get worse when she is abducted on the way to the hospital for a planned caesarean. The taxi driver takes her to an abandoned meat-processing plant on the town outskirts and starts talking about inhumane treatment of cows. Modern milk production is quite horrific.
Kaja suffered profound trauma in her past and has had murderous and suicidal thoughts, which doesn’t don’t bode well for anyone if the mastermind of the whole psychotic affair succeeds in getting Mats to activate the right trigger in her mind.
If you combine these factors with a twisty plot and psychological games, the result is explosive. Mats must deal with saving Nele while terrorising Kaja. If he succeeds, the entire plane will be destroyed and he will die, along with the other passengers. He concludes that ‘there are two types of mistakes: those that make your life worse and those that end it. With that in mind, Mats must resolve own guilt and desire to help while sinking in a sea of insanity.
Aside from these exceptionally difficult situations, the unbearable tension, several skewed moral compasses and some quite frankly bonkers scenarios, this book is totally brilliant and completely absorbing. The action moves between heaven and earth, literally, and shows the precision with which the author portrays the main characters. Fitzek’s craftsmanship lies in creating masterfully nuanced characterisation and changing perceptions through the portrayal of events from several points of view. Seat 7a turns into a manual of manipulation and madness. The translation from German by Steve Anderson reinforces the feel of tension and fear. But I will get on a plane again.
Reviewed 25 June 2022 by Ewa Sherman
