by
Wildfire season in the British Columbia Interior. Experienced firefighting pilot Rafe Mackie loses control of his airplane while doing a routine drop and plummets to his death. The investigation that follows unleashes revelations that forever change the lives of three people: Will, the pilot who watches his mentor crash; Sharon, the widow struggling to come to terms with her loss; and Nathalie, an accident investigator with shadowy connections to the incident. As a form of the truth emerges, these three are drawn into a tangle of secrets and lies, passion and grief, blame and forgiveness that forces them to confront the actions that brought one man’s life crashing down. In her second novel, Frances Peck creates another explosive literary page-turner, one that probes love, loyalty, and the ways we try to conceal and redeem our lives.
She asks what I remember. Thursday morning, July 18, 2013. Walk me through it, from the very beginning, she says. Whatever you recall.
As if there's any part of that morning I could forget.
Danila Botha, author of Things That Cause Inappropriate Happiness wrote:"Uncontrolled Flight is a compelling read overloaded with turbulence—emotional, historical, and literal. Peck masterfully braids three strong and divergent voices into a robust narrative urged forward by the burning landscape and the mysterious, simmering ambitions of her complex characters. As I read, I found myself switching allegiances many times and questioning the choices we all have to make under obvious and invisible pressures."
"Frances Peck's new novel is so compelling and accomplished it's easy to forget that it's only her second. Uncontrolled Flight is a beautifully paced, intimate look at BC wildfires, and the casually courageous aerial firefighters who risk their lives attempting to control them. As in her debut novel, The Broken Places, Peck's characters' voices are multidimensional—I flew through the pages, enjoying all the nuance of their thoughts and desires. Peck's descriptions of BC and note-perfect dialogue are equally precise. I can't recommend this book or her writing highly enough."
