“Tiger in the Sea” is the type of book that I seldom read but, when I do, I enjoy the drama. Author Eric Linder chronicles the crash landing of a Flying Tiger aircraft into a quite-freezing Atlantic Ocean. Without giving much away ( although many other reviewers have already done so!) a whole lotta people when into the sea and did not survive the crash…while some others did, in fact, survive. The accident was attributed to a combination of human error and also a measure of bad luck. The book had all of the elements of a quite dramatic adventure: however, the great amount of details provided in the narrative also tended to bog down a very exciting story.

This is one of my favorite books of the year. The book is the real account of a flying tiger which was ditched into the ocean following a series of mishaps - some bad luck and some human error. This is an edge of your seat story. I made the mistake of starting the book right before bed one night. Needless to say I was up way past my bedtime as I simply could not put it down. If you are a non-fiction history fan, I highly recommend this book!

I really want to read this and give helpful feedback, but it doesn't look like that will be through NetGalley. The download is in a PDF format that doesn't display well in my e-reader. The print is tiny and can't be enlarged without the pages not showing correctly (parts are cut off), and the tiny print is too tiny for me to see. So I can't speak to the content of the book right now. (Since the site seems to be requiring a star rating, I'll give it 3--right in the middle--but that's obviously not content-driven.) Publishers, if you want early reviews, please be mindful of what we readers wind up with.

I was reading TIGER IN THE SEA, as one does, on my Kindle device at my kitchen table, waiting, if I remember correctly, for my wife and two daughters to get ready to go somewhere, again, as one does. And I inadvertently let out a little sigh of frustration.

"What's the matter," the Mrs. said.

"i am reading a book about a plane crash, and the author is giving the complete detailed biographies of every single person on the plane."

"That doesn't sound like fun."

Well, no, it wasn't--there is just a ton of irrelevant information in the early chapters of TIGER IN THE SEA, which you have to wade through to get to the actual story of the actual plane crash. Said crash took place in 1962, when a piston-driven cargo plane, on its way to becoming a relic of the Jet Age, made its way across the North Atlantic on four engines, and then on three engines, and then on two engines, and then one engine, and then into the water off of Ireland.

Anyone who has ever sat through the flight attendant's spiel about what to do in a water landing has had the thought that it would be either silly to prepare for such a thing--say on a flight from Dallas Love to El Paso, where a water landing would have to take place in the Pecos River--or that such a thing would lead to one's immanent demise either way. Flights such as this one are the exception, and author Eric Lindner tells the story of the circumstances leading to the plane crash with verve and precision--as well as the subsequent rescue, which requires the Air Force, the Canadian Navy, and a passing Swiss freighter to all pitch in.

Linder, as we learn at the tail end of the story, married the daughter of one of the intrepid pilot who miraculously found a flat stretch of storm-tossed sea in which to ditch his plane. This gives him an entrée into the survivor community, which explains why there are so many pages of the book with survivor biographies, both before and after the crash. (The other explanation is that Lindner is unable to find the archives related to the plane crash, which have mysteriously disappeared.)

There's an element in the book which makes the reviewer think that this was a really good magazine article expanded to book length--especially when the author copies and pastes multiple pages of the transcript of the pilot's testimony in front of a review panel. But it's still a worthwhile read, and the chapters devoted to the plane crash and the rescue are splendidly done.

Tiger in the Sea by Eric Lindner is a superb and engrossing read which will keep you reading until the end. Well worth the read!