I read my first Michael Crichton novel, The Andromeda Strain, in 1989 as a high school assignment for freshman biology with Mr. Draski.  The last Crichton novel I read, The Lost World, was in 1997 during my last semester in college.  That makes Airframe my first exposure to his work as (truly) an adult, and while it didn’t have all of the thrills that I remember from my youth, it was an entertaining, and somewhat beliveable, tale of corporate politics and sensationalistic television”jornalism”.

The story follows the investigation an airplane manufacturer undertakes after one of their planes is involved in an incident.  While their VP for QA tries to get the bottom of things, others on the management team seem to have their own agendas and a video has gotten the attention of a tv news magazine show looking for quick story to fill a hole.  Crichton opens with the initial mystery, what caused the incident, and adds in the true to life intrigue of the corporate backstabbing that happens everyday, along with the dubious ethics of the producers who believe they can create the news to fit their agendas/timeslots.  A worthy effort that didn’t disappoint either the current version of me or the teenager who was a big Crichton fan back in the early to mid 90s.