This book fell a little flat for me. It was meant to be a character-driven story, but the characters were just not interesting enough for that.

The reader knows there will be a plane crash from the very first chapters, indeed form the synopsis. In Panorama, Steve Kistulentz gives us a glimpse of the full impact of the crash by introducing us to characters that will be directly affected by the event. This novel reminded me of Airport by Arthur Hailey, in subject and style. We are the all knowing fly on the wall as the unsuspecting characters go about their lives, no sense of what might befall them. We go through the crash and the subsequent investigation, again as observers. The final chapters center on a child left orphaned and the grieving relative that will change his own life to take on the responsibility of that child.
Panorama is a debut novel, and it does get a little wordy at times, there is a lot explained through dialogue. The characters are interesting, perhaps not as complex as I would have liked, but the story takes place in a relatively short period of time, so perhaps the character portraits fit the storyline.
I kind of think if the characters were more layered, Panorama would have been a very different book, inciting a bit more tension and emotion from readers. Perhaps, as I think back, I'm grateful not to have made those connection as it allowed me to simply be the outside observer. It is entertaining, a worthwhile read, and I would read more from Steve Kistulentz.

I like books where the characters intersect and have meaning for one another. The development of the characters was good, but it seemed as though the author focused more on the development of the intersection of lives than the lives themselves. As a result, I didn't find myself connecting that well with the individual people in the book.

Steve Kistulentz’s ambitious debut Panorama traces the story of a New Year’s Day plane crash at the Dallas airport. The novel follows several of the people connected to the crash in the day before the tragedy and those following it. Washington pundit Richard who specializes in free speech fisticuffs. A single mother returning to Dallas from a vacation weekend with her boss/ boyfriend. A young law student flying to take care of his ailing mother. These are only a few of Kistulentz’s characters who face the pain and realities of a mechanic’s neglect.

In spite of a solid premis, I felt like the writing suffered from several issues. Because Kistulentz reveals the crash in the first chapter, the book relies on its characters and writing to move the narrative. Yet the characters are somewhat cookie-cutter and predictable. The writing was dense, and the words seemed to be stacked upon others haphazardly.

I can not recommend Panorama. I believe there is great promise in Kistulentz’s writing, but this one did not create any mystery or tension for me. There are so many other good novels out there that explore the effects of these types of tragedies.

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown, and Co, and Steve Kistulentz for the copy for review.

A beautiful story of the love of family, life changing in an instant and how we rebuild from the wreckage. So well written!

New Year’s Eve - Denver

Arnold Bright, airline mechanic, is tired from working double time to support and please his family. So, he decides to forego doing a thorough check of the rail rudder assembly of a plane reading for flight the next day.

Richard MacMurray is a well known television commentator. He is single and his girlfriend has broken up with him. He lives in Washington DC and travels often for various news broadcasts.

Mary Beth is Richard’s sister. She was married for a number of years. During that time, she tried to conceive, but was unsuccessful. But when her husband left her, she found out she was pregnant. Now, her son Gabriel is 6-years-old and the light of her life. Mary Beth works as an Office Manager for Mike who is a successful life insurance salesman in Dallas. They have been dating but Mary Beth realizes that it’s just going anywhere. Mike still calls her son “the kid.” Mary Beth and Mike have traveled to Denver for a New Year’s Eve vacation. Mary Beth is due to fly back on New Year’s Day. She misses Gabriel and worries about being away from him.

The story centers in on various people who are alone in life. It gives lots of background information on them. As the hours pass for the departure of Panorama Flight 503 from Denver to Dallas, the author peeks in on various people adding commentary. As the plane is preparing to land in Denver, the horrific event takes place and the plane crashes killing all aboard - Mary Beth included.

Next, we see the special airline crew trained to step in and handle the aftermath of a disaster. There are certain things they can and cannot say and the author goes into great detail about that.

When Richard learns his sister, Mary Beth, was on the plane, he realizes as the only known next of kin, he will be responsible for caring for Gabriel.

I found this book to be chock full of dialogue that was so boring it became just blah-blah-blah. There was so nail-biting buildup to a disaster and the characters were bland and unremarkable. Unfortunately, I simply did not care for this book.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was a well-written book that just fell a little flat for me. The plot sounded intriguing - readers get to see the events leading up to a tragic plane crash, as well as the immediate aftermath for loved ones left behind. But the execution left me wanting more. The pre-crash portion felt long and moved slowly, then everything after just felt a little rushed. Everyone's story is neatly wrapped up in the span of a couple really short chapters (they had an epilogue feel to them - quick little snippets to tie up all the loose ends). I also had a hard time connecting with any of the characters (of which there were many), possibly because there was so much moving around between storylines. Richard was definitely the most developed and interesting character, but he still felt a little empty to me (or maybe, in the words of his ex-girlfriend, a little "stagnant.") His character grows by the end, but because it was so rushed, it felt inauthentic.

None of these people can talk to each other and then there is a plane crash and those who are alive still can't talk to each other. People who would like to make connections, but can't. People who don't want to make connections, but don't want to admit that. We readers see the misunderstandings but that doesn't help anyone in the book. Just sad people living sad and lonely lives. Not really my kind of book, I guess. Certainly not what I expected from the blurb. I did not find this to be a page-turner.

It might be a generational thing but I just could not get beyond the first few chapters. I must be missing something as the description sounded like a book I would like.

Television news pundit Richard MacMurray is in the middle of examining his life in Washington, D.C., when he finds out his estranged sister was aboard Panorama Airlines Flight 503, which crashed in Dallas with no survivors. Her death leaves MacMurray as the only living relative of her young son, Gabriel, and just another of the characters in Panorama touched by the disaster.

This debut novel by Steve Kistulentz takes place over the course of a day and follows several storylines leading up to and after the crash. But Panorama (Little, Brown and Company, digital galley) always returns to MacMurray who sees a chance to make something new of his life as he focuses on retrieving Gabriel.

As the title suggests, Panorama provides a wide and unbroken view of the lives of the people touched by the disaster. In fact it feels a little voyeuristic, knowing what we know, to watch as characters go about their daily lives before the crash. Following the disaster the reader is exposed to the intimate and life changing effects an airplane crash can have on everyone from airline employees to victims’ families. But Kistulentz handles the stories with dignity and gives us a life affirming, if heartbreaking, drama that feels ripped out of the headlines.

With the news showing us images on a daily basis of a horrific incident, it is easy to forget that each individual affected has a story, has family, and has a purpose. Here, Steve Kistulentz attempts to show us how it is that certain people end up being at the wrong place at the right time. How their families are left to process what has happened, and how even the simplest of decisions would have made them be any other place but there to catch that fateful plane.This is a good read, one that will stay with you for a while and will help you understand how the strangers you watch on the news are coping with the decisions and ultimate death of their loved ones. Especially one that was entirely out of their hands the second they boarded the plane.

Wow, I loved this novel. And what an interesting way to write about a plane crash. We get inside the heads of a seemingly disparate panorama of people. What they have in common is the crash of Panorama flight 503, but the tension is in finding out who it is that ends up on that flight and how those loved ones who depend on them cope in the aftermath, how they deal with the words that are left unsaid, the last moments together. A compassionate, original, thought-provoking book. I was utterly consumed by the intertwining stories. Each character seemed like a cherished friend and I mourned along with them.

While this book is bitingly written and laid out with great care, the buildup to the foreshadowed tragedy went on for far too long. I have the feeling I was meant to be falling for these characters despite (or because) of their flaws—the author’s message seemed to be “bad things happen to all kinds of people” but unfortunately I couldn’t glean much more from it

“It is a kind of delicious cheating to flip ahead, to know how everything turns out; to read the last page is to learn exactly how inevitable the events are in a particular story.”

Life, however is disorderly and not tied in neat endings set to a beautiful soundtrack. If we knew what would happen and could prevent or change it, nothing would ever happen. In Panorama a careless oversight causes a tragedy with life altering consequences for everyone involved. Richard MacMurray works in television, a well known tv pundit, part-time gadfly. While he is a guest on a news show, digging into an argument about the First Amendment, the anchorman gets word of breaking news, a Special Report– trigger words for Richard after tragedy struck his own father Lew, decades ago. Tragedy has found him again, this time his sister Mary Beth is one of the victims in a jet airline crash, leaving behind her little boy Gabriel, but he doesn’t quite know this yet. Before long, he will.

Richard is the remaining family, and knows it is now on him to take in his nephew. How will he be a father to a little boy who is very much a stranger to him? He isn’t the only person left reeling. Mary Beth had just begun dating her Boss Mike Renefro, fresh in the relationship not quite solidified but getting there, wanting to be more and now consumed by worry for the little boy whose mother is never coming back, Mike is a sort of outcast from those grieving, unofficial as he isn’t legally tied to the victim. Mike, who has no say in anything, who has no right to be ‘involved’ but desperate, knowing he must get to Mary Beth’s son, to be the one to tell him what has happened, rules be damned. Gabriel, a ‘strange and lonely’ child who feels the force of being the only child of a single mom, a boy who has a plan to be more ‘normal’, to be more likable and blend in with all those kids who leave him out, once his mother returns from her trip he will tell her how he will fix things. It’s too late, but he doesn’t know this, he has no clue his mother has died in a plane crash. There is something tender and horrifying, as if he is suspended in time, free from the devastating knowledge, but only a short reprieve. We wish he never had to find out.

This captures a moment that pulls so many into it’s tragic orbit, teenagers that are going about their day getting up to the things young people do that get footage of the crash, knowing it’s gold for any news station. There is Sarah who has been caring for Gabriel while Mary Beth is on her vacation and waits for his mother’s return but soon has to pass him over to temporary guardian Maura Valle, who just doesn’t have the heart to tell the little boy his mother won’t be coming back. How does one go about being the person who delivers news that will rupture a child’s world forever? From a janitor, to a mechanic, a brother, a son and everyone in between, the reader witnesses how a moment can change everything. None of them get to skip to the ending, to change their mistakes or avoid the flight. Fate is set.

Publication Date: March 6, 2018

Coming soon from Little, Brown and Company

The aftermath of a tragedy is the subject of this intense read. Richard McMurray is about to go on air to deliver his impression of recent government events when he learns that a jet has crashed in Dallas, killing everyone on board, including his sister. Mary Beth had a sex year old son, and as his only living relative, Richard is now his caregiver. From here, Kistulenz looks at everyone involved with the doomed aircraft, from cleaners and mechanics, to passengers and their families. This is a portrait of the far-reaching effects of a tragedy and how we try to process and come to terms with the inconceivable. I found myself in tears more than once. Elegant and moving