Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

by:  Noah Hawley
published by:  Grand Central Publishing
publish date:  May 31, 2016

On a foggy summer night, eleven people—ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter—depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs—the painter—and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family. 

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members—including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot—the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers' intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work?

Scott Burroughs was a down and out painter.  But in his younger days he was a star swimmer.   When the plane he is traveling on crashes, he is able to swim to shore saving himself and the only other survivor, a 4 year old boy.  The plane was carrying 2 of the richest families in the country, and there are a lot of questions about what caused the plane crash.  Was it human error or was it an act of terrorism?

Before the Fall is told alternating between the present and backstory of each of the 11 passengers on the plane.  At first, this method of story telling was really slow.  It made it feel like we were never going to find out what happened to the plane.  But in the end, it was really good and having such a thorough background on all the characters made it more believable.

I really enjoyed this book.  I would definitely recommend it.  Before the Fall is definitely one of the books you want to put in your beach bag this summer.