I just love the way Scott Carson tells a story! This one was strange and not at all like the previous book I read - Lost Man's Lane, which receives a nod at the end! - but the storytelling style was every bit as evocative and original and eerie. The beginning led me to expect a wildly different story than I got (I don't like to reread blurbs after requesting books, preferring to go in blind), but I didn't mind at all because of the facility with which the book eased me into the reality of its particular universe.

There is a lot going on here, and the mixture of science fiction and history and family drama and military conspiracy could easily have made it confusing and overblown - but it didn't. Carson has a knack for pulling seemingly disparate elements together into a whole that is so much more than the sum of its parts, and that knack is definitely on display here. The characters were compelling, the plot was action-packed and also thoughtful, and the history was fascinating.

This one was very cool and I already can't wait for his next title - fortunately, there are a couple back-catalog titles of his I haven't read yet, so I'll have to settle for those for now! (Then I may have to dig into his *other* writing to see what I think of that!)

A great book that I couldn't put down as I could not wait to see where the story went next. In terms of overall story and character development, it reminded me of classic Stephen King. Overall just a terrific book and one I highly recommend.

Another Scott Carson, another 5 stars. Also another mis classification as horror, even moreso than Lost Mans Lane. I’m not sure where that marketing is coming from as I’d describe this as slightly paranormal/ supernatural mixed with historical but definitely not horror. Regardless, loved it!

Interesting story but a little too much thrown in. A lot of scientific details take away from the crux and the pacing.

4 stars out of 5.

I thought this was a really interesting book and is unlike anything I have read recently. There is some sci-fi tied into the book that really was unexpected. I thought the pacing was perfect and I could not put the book down. The book switches from past then present tense which gives us all the background information for the story. I did find some of the beginning a little confusing on some details of the story but by the ending everything tied up nicely. Overall, a great thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.

In Departure 37, a bunch of pilots get messages and calls from their moms saying not to fly that day, when in fact, the moms did not make the calls. Everything is at a ground stop. Now, over to a remote Maine town, Charlie finds a weird grey balloon that appears to be a weather balloon but is not. It ends up tying to a classified experiment done in the 60s. The rest of the story gives us some details on said experiment and even a few surprises.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this. It was one of those books that I kept thinking about when I was doing something else. I couldn't wait to get back to it. The switching between time periods worked well, and I liked the characters. Recommended.

One of my favorite reads of 2024 was Those Who Wish Me Dead by the same author (Michael Koryta) so when I saw this pop up and the premise intrigued me I decided to go for it and I am SO glad I did.

This book starts off SO strong: pilots across the country are called by their mothers in the middle of the night and they are begged by them to not fly the next day or otherwise they will die and be responsible for the death of the souls they carry onboard. The kicker is none of these mothers remember making the call... and some of them are dead. If that premise alone doesn't grab you, I don't know what would!

This story is told in multiple POVs and different timelines. One timeline is modern-ish day where we follow Charlie who has recently moved to a remote area of Maine after her Mom has passed away tragically. It was a location that was close to her Mother's heart as it is where her grandfather passed away when his plane crashed in the 60s and they have made yearly treks to honor him. She follows a weird silver balloon in hopes of getting some footage of it for her channel thinking her audience will enjoy it.

The second timeline from the 60s is following a scientist Martin Hazelton who makes an amazing discovery that will come in handy if he can perfect it... the problem is that the government doesn't completely trust him due to his history.

I could not put this book down and sped through this SO quickly. The chapters are short and each POV is equally as compelling as the last.

Highly recommend this book to anyone that likes mystery/suspense and wants a thriller pacing without gore.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Charlie is 16 and extremely inquisitive about all things science when she tracks a small weather
balloon from its descent into a local hilly area, recovering it from it's tangle on bramble and rocks.
And thus begins a story of epic sci fi proportions.
Characters are easily recognizable in their attributed centuries and fairly common.
The story was intriguing as time travel inevitably is, even to most non believers.
Too much of the back and forth between them and now for me.
Something gets lost between the pages..

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

I like the author. I really do. But good Lord in Heaven above, enough with the details! I love when an author does research, but now I know way too much about weather balloons and airplanes and AI and weather balloons and weather balloons and weather balloons and weather...get my point?

While the reason behind everything isn't nearly as mysterious as promised by the plot description, it's still a fun tale of conspiracy, technology, and some very mysterious happenings in history.

Not quite what I was hoping it would be, but I enjoyed what it was.

Oh...and, in case I didn't make it clear, weather balloons.

I finished 20 percent of this book and inhad to DNFed it. It didn’t hold my interest at all considering I would read anything to do with planes and mysteries.

I’m always eager to get my hands on the newest Scott Carson/Michael Koryta books.

This one is less of a chiller than the usual Carson books but I really enjoyed it. There’s only a slight note of the supernatural but it’s mostly just super science. The kind of just ahead of us science that could have been mistaken as magic back in the day.

The timeline mix works really well and the dual plots hang together nicely. The first threads are pretty disbursed but just enough is revealed to keep you going until everything comes together in a fast paced climax.

Very enjoyable. I’m glad I received an advanced copy and hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did!

✨ Lost meets Stephen King’s 11/22/63 meets Oppenheimer. Do I have your attention?

✨Well researched elements of time travel, the arms race, the Cold War era, AI, and coming of age all kept me on the edge of my seat.

✨I loved Lost Man’s Lane and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book. I must admit it was a departure from the aforementioned, but I really enjoyed it.

✨ Fun fact: Scott Carson is the pseudonym used by bestselling author Michael Koryta.

🌿Read if you like:
✨Dual timelines
✨Well-researched historical fiction
✨Stephen King
✨JJ Abrams
✨Maine settings
✨Indiana settings

VERY intriguing premise with some really complex and interesting characters. However, it all got a bit jumbled towards the end, as often happens with books involving time traveling.

I have enjoyed all of Scott Carson's books, and Lost Man's Lane is one of the best books I've ever read, so to say that I was excited for Departure 37 is an understatement. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. It starts out good, with a pilot receiving a phone call from his mother telling him not to fly, but by the end of the first chapter that mystery is already explained. From the description of the book I thought that explaining the phone calls was what it was about, so to have that solved immediately was surprising. What follows is a series of baffling decisions made by the government and military. It felt like they kept making the worst, most ridiculous decisions possible in order to force the plot along in a certain direction. For example, an absurd assumption was based on a mere hotel reservation with no follow-up at all and a greeting was done horribly. It felt like The Three Stooges were in charge. Also, I wasn't a big of Charlie. She was kind of off-putting and annoying. So many things are left completely unexplained as well, and I can think of at least one thing that doesn't seem to make sense at all.

Now for the positive. The writing itself is good. The characters are well-developed, even if I didn't like them all. Abe was great and I would have enjoyed seeing more of him. Dr. Martin was an interesting character as well. There were a couple of surprise twists. The history was obviously well-researched, and I learned a lot about that time period. One scene was very emotional and brought tears to my eyes.

Overall, Departure 37 just didn't work for me. I hope this book resonates better with other readers, but for me, too many poor decisions were made, too much was left unexplained, and it just didn't have the heart, charm and spookiness I was looking for. I still look forward to reading Scott Carson's next book, however.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Departure 37. I loved Lost Man’s Lane and was very excited to this novel
This novel tells the story in two time lines - the current time and sixty years ago.
It starts when airline pilots receive a call from their mother directing them not to fly their plane on that day. And some of these mothers had passed away
Strange - yes and causing a crisis.
In a secret chamber this event is not strange. No this event is a safety net for the public. And if airplanes are in the air they may cause catastrophic consequences.
This is a different story than I thought.
I liked the characters and the plot. What had me baffled at times was the technical details which had me confused at times
Good book. 3 stars.

THIS MAY HAVE SPOILERS
Having loved all other books by the pseudonym Scott Carson I couldn’t wait to read this as well but I found myself disappointed. The book started scary enough with telephone calls to pilots from their moms telling them not to fly that day because of a disastrous outcome. And some of the moms were dead. But we quickly find out how this happened. There are two timelines and storylines, present and when we first had nuclear weaponry up to 1962 during the Cuban missle crisis. (As a young child when this happened I never realized exactly how close we came to the brink of extinction, which was interesting). The way the chapters are set up the storylines bounce between the two timelines too quickly. I got into one timeline and then all of a sudden I’d be at the other. This was a little difficult with all the technical and scientific information that was written. I was definitely hoping for more spooky and scary like his other books, but I would classify this sci-fi, not suspense and not horror. The writing was.as an always good but my eyes kept glazing over the scientific detailed parts although I know this was an important part of history. I would’ve liked more of the story with the girl, the guy and the older man. I do hope the girls shows up in future books in someway, she’s a very interesting character. So all in all I was disappointed and that’s my problem because as I said, I was looking for spooky.