Thanks to NetGalley and Greenleaf Book Group for the advanced reader copy.

With the success of books like Drowning and Falling, I was all set to enjoy Seat 3A. But, the opening pages already lost me. The main character wasn't immediately interesting except that he saw a dead body from his seat on a plane. I didn't buy that he would then immediately book a flight back to that city to look into the death of this stranger.

Let me start by saying this book was genuinely really entertaining. But I felt that it was a bit unbelievable and unrealistic and I found myself extremely anxious regarding the main character. Maybe that was Surgue’s goal and if so he definitely nailed it. But I felt his behaviors were erratic and honestly stressful. All that to say the ending really did shock me, and although I didn’t relate to the main character I would still recommend to a friend.

This was a great debut. The story was inspired by a real experience. Mr. Sugrue is a restauranteur in the same setting as the story and once thought he saw a dead body outside of an airplane window during takeoff. His seat was 3A.
Christian is a relatable main character who is going through a rough patch in his life. On a forced vacation from work, he does indeed believe there to be a dead body in the river below, while on his way to visit his brother in Miami. He quickly returns back to Delaware to see if that was in fact what he saw from his seat. Given recent events in his life, he is unsure if it's his imagination from stress, or if there was a real person. The story chronicles Christian's need to find justice for the person who died while reliving the death of his best friend during childhood. Jon had never received justice for a life ended way too soon.
This book kept me guessing throughout and moved at a great pace. It seemed well researched and the writing was fantastic for a new author. I look forward to reading more from him in the future. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Eric Sugure, and Greenleaf Book Group for the ARC in exchange for my review.

I will say that for a first crime thriller from this author it was decent. Nothing overly memorable but I think there’s good potential for this author.

For a book that’s titled after a seat on an airplane, it’s only the first like 10 pages that has anything to do with it. The title and cover really don’t go with the plot of the book in my opinion.

This was such an unbelievable storyline. So much of it was so far fetched and not likely to happen. It started off very promising and then tapered off. A man who owns restaurants isn’t going to have back stage passes to the morgue. There were too many events that would likely never actually happen for me to enjoy this book as much as someone else might.

The main character wasn’t likeable at all. Christian was annoying and reckless. Not once do you think to contact authorities? Again, not believable at all. The supporting characters were ok. There wasn’t much character development to really become attached to any of them.

The writing was just ok, not good, not awful but mediocre. There’s plenty of grammar and spelling mistakes that hopefully get caught before publication. The formatting of this ARC was poor as well. In my opinion it wasn’t quite ready to go out and the publication date should be pushed back a smidge.

This was a classic who did it kind of book. There wasn’t much for originality. There were plot holes and missing details everywhere. Seemed like the author was on a role and then lost their train of thought and it never came back. As for Jon, what was the purpose of his story? He died when he and Christian were children, and the police fabricated the whole story. It would have been nice for some justice there but his storyline dropped out of nowhere.

I’d say it’s good first go at writing a crime thriller. Definitely room for improvements. I would read more from the author and look forward to seeing this book become a series as intended. Hopefully some plot lines can be straightened out in the next one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I loved reading this book. I particularly was glued to the storyline and Christians character. The great mix of mystery and suspense helped keep this book going. Some parts were humours and the perfect balance of chapters and seriousness in the storyline. The side storyline featuring Christians best friend and his murder I found myself really eager to find out how he died and why.

Great read!! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one!! This book had great suspense, intrigue, action packed, murder, mystery, a great who done it and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my kindle! I highly recommend reading this book! I can’t wait for more!! Great read! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!