In Michael Crichton's book Airframe an incident involving a Norton N-22 Widebody jet has occurred. Casey Singleton, a vice president of the company and a representative for Quality Insurance and Incident Review team, has to find out what happened. She is portrayed as a woman who is very committed to her job and does not feel like she has that many important people in her life. Every lead Casey comes across winds up a dead end. To make matters worse the accident may jeopardize a sale of the N-22 to the Chinese which determines whether the company lives or dies. Casey also has a new assistant, Bob Richman, who starts to sneak around her office and mysterious things start to happen.

In some parts of the book it seems that the writing was not quality, but written just for sheer thrills. "She was so excited, she did not hear the rush of footsteps behind her until it was too late. Strong hands shoved against her, she grunted, and her hands slipped away, and then her body fell through the door, into space" (p.258). This quote, which is written about Casey Singleton, does not seem realistic because first, she is assaulted a few other times in the book and second, how often would an executive at a big company realistically be assaulted? This part of the book seems a little unlikely although it makes the book move a little faster.

Although a setting at an airplane factory does not seem special, it really adds to the story. "The huge partially assembled widebody jets gleamed under halogen lights. Fifteen aircraft in various stages of construction were arranged in two long rows under the vaulted roof" (p. 21). The setting seems very realistic because it is not distinctive or glamorous. It is also good because the setting reflects what the story is about in that it is about airplanes.

One very powerful and beautiful thing about this book is that in some parts of the book there is a lot detail which helps make the storyline accurate, and in other parts there is a lot of action (realistic or not so) which keeps the book moving. This is a nice balance of the fast reading and the eloquent, detailed writing which makes it easier to imagine being in the story.

Despite the flaws which plague this book, it is fun to read and contains many factual references. These factual references include many crashes such as the Hawaiian Airlines crash in the eighties. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading. I do not think it would be good for an avid reader of the classics such as: Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and artistic works of the greatest writer of them all, Jules Verne.