Skid by Rene Gutteridge

After a rash of mediocre reading last month, I am thrilled to report the drought is OVER! I read several great books the last couple weeks and this was one of them. Rene Gutteridge does it again, combining humor and suspense. Who else on earth can put a pig on an airplane with a diamond thief, or two, and a secret shopper and make it readable? (Please, don't let that last sentence scare you off, it is overly great!) And this is one of those rare books that I'd give a 5 on Amazon. Pick it up!

And just in case you, like me, read Scoop, it starts the same way. I was so blaming confused, certain I hadn't read this, but forgetting that it is in the same family as Scoop, flipping back and forth.....well, my excuse is that the kids are home from school and I'm getting too much sun. (Speaking of too much sun, Scoop is a word right? The spell checker isn't giving me a squiggly line, and I'm certain that is the title, but it looks so funny there in type!)

Blissfully unaware that Atlantica Flight 1945 from Atlanta to Amsterdam is about to make aviation history, First Officer Danny McSweeney focuses his energies on navigating the turbulent personalities of an eccentric female captain, a co-pilot with a talent for tactless comments and conspiracy theories, and a lead flight attendant with an outsized attitude that definitely exceeds the limits for carry-on baggage.

On the other side of the cockpit door, the unscheduled in-flight entertainment includes a potbellied pig, a jittery diamond courier, and the recently jilted Lucy Meredith, whose personal mantra of “What Would Oprah Do?” will be challenged by the sudden appearance of her ex and his new traveling partner. On her left sits Hank Hazard, whose unusually polite but constant requests–prompted by his covert role as a spy for the airline–test the limits of the crew’s customer service.

But as Lucy and the rest of the crew discover, Hank’s odd behavior is linked to a quiet faith that may play a key role in the fate of everyone on board. Especially when an unexpected traveler sets this already bumpy flight on a course toward the unfriendly skies.