Layover

By: David Bell

Narrated by: Robbie Daymond

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

In this high concept psychological suspense novel from the USA Today best-selling author of Somebody’s Daughter, a chance meeting with a woman in an airport sends a man on a pulse-pounding quest for the truth.

Joshua Fields takes the same flights every week for work, his life a series of departures and arrivals, hotels and airports. During yet another layover, he meets Morgan, a beautiful stranger with whom he feels an immediate connection. When it’s time for their respective flights, Morgan kisses Joshua passionately, lamenting that they’ll never see each other again. 

As soon as Morgan disappears in the crowd, Joshua is shocked to see her face on a nearby TV. The reason: Morgan is a missing person. 

What follows is a whirlwind, fast-paced journey filled with lies, deceit, and secrets as Joshua tries to discover why Morgan has vanished from her own life. Every time he thinks one mystery is solved, another rears its head - and his worst enemy might be his own assumptions about those around him. 

Praise for Layover 

"A terrifically tense thriller with a femme fatale who will keep you guessing until the very end. The perfect airplane read!" (Riley Sager, New York Times best-selling author of The Last Time I Lied)  

"[A] fast-paced thriller....Bell keeps the reader guessing whodunit until the end." (Publishers Weekly)

“You meet someone at an airport and the connection between you is so irresistible you change your flight and chase after them. This killer premise kicks off David Bell’s twisty, breakneck thriller, and has you tearing through the pages to a shattering finale.” (Louise Candlish, international best-selling author of Our House)

©2019 David Bell (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“David Bell is a top-notch storyteller and Layover is his best book yet. I flew through this twisty, riveting psychological thriller at breakneck speed, hooked from the first page right up through the book’s breathless conclusion.” (Cristina Alger, national best-selling author of The Banker’s Wife)

“David Bell once again plunges the Everyman (or woman) into situations both ordinary and extraordinary. Subtle, insightful, and very human, Layover brings to mind the best of James M. Cain.” (Christina Dalcher, national best-selling author of Vox) 

“[A] fast-paced thriller.... Bell keeps the reader guessing whodunit until the end.” (Publishers Weekly)  

Couldn't finish...

I tried. Then I tried again and a third time. I gave up. I like David Bell but I did not like this book at all. I should have read the publisher's summary better but even that doesn't give enough insight in the ridiculousness of this story. A grown man meets a woman on the airport, they have a drink at the bar, she kisses him and says goodbye forever (oh sigh ) and he's in love. Cancels his business plans and follows her When he goes to her on the plane she starts yelling that he's a stalker and he's escorted back to his seat. Does he go home? No he tracks her down to her hotel room a few towns away where after much begging to be let in they end up making mad passionate love... that's it, I'm done!!!
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Not impressed

I stuck with this story because I wanted to find out “whodunit”. I kept waiting for it to grab me. It did not. The main character just seems like an idiot in my opinion. The story wasn’t a believable or interesting scenario. I just wasn’t impressed at all. The performance was spot on but that’s about all I can say.

Disappointed

I'm a big fan of David Bell's books and was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it was not worth the wait. I didn't find the actions of the characters at all believable (as in no one in their right mind would ever act this way.) I kept waiting for the story to get better or some incredible plot twist to turn it around, but that never happened. As I said before, I'm generally a big fan, but this book felt as if he was trying to force a story when there wasn't one and also felt a little like he was trying to write in a new style and it did not work for him. I'm hoping he'll return to his fantastic storytelling in his next book.

Who would behave this way?

What person in their right mind would make the poor decisions, one after the other, that the protagonist in this book made? Not credible. I did stick with it to the end, only because I thought it simply had to get better. It never did. How do I get my point back, not to say anything about the 11 hrs and 50 minutes I spent listening to it?

Nicely written and performed but a but anticlimactic.

The writing of this book, in my opinion was superb. The descriptiveness fit with my level of interpretation.
The narration was great. Never annoying, as some tend to be.

The story was good, however, without being too descriptive, a bit anticlimactic for me.

Only criticism (and perhaps I’m wrong in understanding millennials (wouldn’t be the first)), the two 25 years olds at a bar in an airport, order a bourbon on the rocks and a Bloody Mary?

The age-to-drink ratio is all off. A beer and a white wine makes more sense,

But, as I’ve said, maybe 25 year olds drink bourbon and bloody Mary’s these days.

Just seems odd to me.

Too many chapters

Started out great. Too many short paragraphs. Took longer to say the chapter number than the entire chapter. The book went on forever with no point.

Let Me Spare You the Agony

Flat story. No suspense. No twists. The writing is sophomoric. And the icing on the cake? The narrator is seriously lacking! His female voices are laughable. His tone, timing, and inflection are nowhere near as I've come to expect from Audible.