Night over Water

By: Ken Follett

Narrated by: Tom Casaletto

Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

On a bright September morning in 1939, two days after Britain declares war on Germany, a group of privileged but desperate people gather in Southhampton to board the largest, most luxurious airliner ever built - the Pan American Clipper - bound for New York.

The passengers include a fascist English aristocrat fleeing with his family and a fortune in jewels; a German scientist escaping from the Nazis; a murderer under FBI escort; a beautiful young woman heading for a new life; and a handsome, charming, unscrupulous thief.

They will be in the air for 30 hours, soothed by the carpeted lounges, the curtained beds, the gourmet dining room, and the endless champagne. But once inside the flying palace, there is no escape. Over the Atlantic, the Clipper's passengers are gripped by mounting fear and tension as their journey reaches the point of no return.

©1991 Ken Follett (P)1991 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"Follet soars to a thoroughly satisfying ending with aeronautical precision." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Tom Casaletto's glib performance makes this seemingly endless journey fly by with ease. His many accents are first-rate." ( AudioFile)

Entertaining!

This was not my favorite Follett book but kept me entertained. The characters were mildly interesting. I kept imagining I was watching an old movie. I think they should have gotten a better reader though. Someone British who does a good American accent. It is quite annoying to hear a bad British accent that sounds just like an Australian accent.

Fantastic story

Lots of unforeseen twists and turns, and steamy love stories. Would make a fantastic TV mini-series.

Another Follett well worth the listen!

Nicely informative and of historical value for pre-WWII context NIGHT OVER WATER is a smooth listen that is hard to turn off.

The second half was better ….

The first half of the book was very slow going, made more of a slog through the terrible narration of Tom Casaletto. His stilted pronunciation, and his frequent emphasis on the wrong word in the sentence was very distracting.
The second half of the story was more interesting, but the rom-com happy ending for everyone, and the author’s habit of over-explaining the obvious points was a surprise for an author who typically writes much better than this

An absolute delight!

It’s a great fast paced story that I could not stop listening to. My only tiny complaint is that the narrator starts out a bit too fast but he does seem to slow his pace later. A really fun listen!

Narrator Take A Breath

An entertaining period piece story but read way too fast. sometimes it seemed the reader did not even stop at periods making the reading seem rushed.

Not the usual excellent Ken Follett book!

This was a bit disappointing. I have read many of his books and I'm eagerly awaiting the 3rd in his trilogy. However, this one seemed to lack the usual Follett excitement. The story was rather contrived though it could have been very interesting, given the setting of 1939 just as WWII began. I felt like it was more a vehicle to describe Pan American's trans-Atlantic plane and capabilities than to tell a real story of people's lives. Also, the sex scenes seemed ill-placed and not at all important to the story but rather a way to try to keep reader interest. For me, those scenes just made me say, OK, get on with the story.

wonderful

it's everything the reviewers say it is. it was a little slow to start for me but I appreciate a thriller that isn't super gory and more character-driven. there is also more Romance without detracting from the beautiful plot.

Don't Let 1991 Publication Date Stop You

I was originally worried that the book was old and dated, but I was wrong. It could have been written yesterday. The author is obviously a best selling giant in the publishing world and with good reason. This book is a period piece set at the opening of World War Two in Europe and deals with the real life Pan Am Clipper. There are several stories running simultaneously that keep the reader's attention. The book lends itself to audio very well and the narrator does an outstanding job. I always like to read books where I learn things even if the book is a novel. I learned a great deal about the Pan Am Clipper and the book inspired me to do some more digging on the subject. The characters in the book were all plausible and well fleshed out. The story lines were all resolved and left me satisfied about the ending. This book wasn't so detailed that the story bogged down as it does sometimes in some of those 30 hour historical novels. There was enough description to give you a nice mental image and it moves the story along. I can say that this novel was good informative entertainment.

Enjoyable and educational tale.

Another success by Ken Follett; I could hardly stop listening and intend to listen again soon. Like all Ken Follett, there are many characters but easy to keep track of and the story keeps you engrossed. The subject of these pre-war planes that landed on water made for interesting fiction, and the narrator did an outstanding job, but he had good material to work with.