D.B.
A Novel
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
In 1971, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper hijacked a flight, claimed his ransom without harming a soul, and vanished. Elwood Reid uses this true story as a starting point, imagining Cooper as Phil Fitch, a Vietnam vet with a failed marriage who decides the time has come to do something that will save him from a life of punching timecards and wondering what could have been. Fitch ends up in Mexico, where he drifts until a bad turn of luck forces him to return home.
Meanwhile, newly retired FBI agent Frank Marshall is struggling with his new life of leisure–fishing, spending time with family, and drinking too much. Unable to let go of a few old cases, Marshall decides to help a young agent determined to solve the mystery of D. B. Cooper. As they close in and events bring Fitch back home, these two stories head for a moving climax in a smart, gripping, and frequently hilarious tale of one of America’s modern folk heroes.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reid, the author of a story collection (What Salmon Know) and a football novel (If I Don't Six), here tackles the real-life 1971 case of notorious skyjacker D.B. Cooper. The novel is a hit-or-miss effort, made memorable by athletic prose and forgettable by a meandering plot. Cooper, who was never apprehended, is in this telling a Vietnam vet named Fitch, a man so disillusioned with his life that he decides to risk everything on one big criminal gamble. The plan is successful, and Cooper/Fitch reaps nearly a quarter of a million dollars before parachuting from the Boeing 727 straight into legend. His nomadic existence in Mexico is intercut with scenes from the life of Frank Marshall, a retired FBI agent who was among the many pursuers stymied by Fitch's disappearance. In the middle of the book, particularly, atmosphere and delayed flashback take center stage and the story suffers. Every minor character is provided with an exhaustive list of quirky traits and the inevitable meshing of the two plot lines is stalled for too long. The novel's denouement, however, is handled with alacrity and will reward the persistent reader.
