Mile High (Windy City Series Book 1)

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Stevie (Vee), my sweet girl, reminds me a lot of myself and I think the author wrote it in hopes that some (if not all) women could relate to her. Mile High is my first book by Rebecca Chance, but I had heard great things about her previous books so I was really excited to start it. The first that caught my attention in this book was its third person narrative. It was told from multiple points of views but it had a bit of an impersonal touch, so it was difficult for me to really connect with the characters. I felt, at the beginning, as if I was reading a very long magazine article rather than a book. But once I got used to this style and started knowing all the key characters better, I started enjoying the story a lot more. And I have to admit that with this narrative, it was totally impossible to guess who the stalker was, so Rebecca managed to keep me wondering until the very last minute. Throw in a bit of humour to the heady plot, combine with some potent pills and you have an inflammatory mix of personalities and situations.

The hideous possibility exists that Richard Condon has committed allegory. This saddening and unlikely conclusion is what remains after the reader has discarded all ordinary explanations for Mile High. The fine, demented gleam in Condon's eye has become a glitter, like that of a health-bar sign observed through the bottom of a celery-tonic bottle.... Despite the cult that has grown up around Condon, he is not really a great novelist, and certainly makes no pretensions about the value of his work. But as a practitioner of the fiction of information, no one else comes close to him.... Condon's great and nourishing strength has always been his mania for mania. The mushy midsection of the human-behavior range has no interest for him, and ordinary psychosis not much more. What grips his imagination, and shakes it till splendid words fall out, is the tic of a human bomb....

Condon just cannot be all bad, try as he will. Mile High contains at least one phrase that will outlast the century. Someone's face is described as resembling "a fish cake with a mustache." Condon should discard the rest of the book and rebuild on this foundation. [2] But that’s how good Liz’s writing is, no matter how many times you’ve read her books, it’s different every time. Liz knows how to convey all the emotions in her books to you. There are times when you are happy, angry, laughing and sometimes you just cry because of the pain his character conveys in his stories.

Mile High at first seems a normal Condon fancy.... Eddie West, the son of an Irish immigrant, brings about Prohibition singlehanded. His reason for doing so is that Prohibition will provide business opportunities. This is instantly understood by "the 18 greediest, the seven most hypocritical and the five wealthiest families in the country" to whom he goes for financing....Wow! I felt completely exhausted after reading Mile High. There was always something going on, and left you guessing till right towards the end as to who the stalker was. I had no idea it was going to be (oh no, you didn’t really think I was going to spoil it did you?) For some years now, Richard Condon... has been one of our supreme entertainers, a verbal tap-dancer whose ambitions usually have been limited to bedazzlement, fantasy and dark laughter. For the moment, he has abandoned vaudeville for a more serious stage. The result is this savage novel about the corruption of modern America.... But the stalker story line is not the only one going on during this flight. Romance, scandal, envies, jealousy... they all have their own role. With a really bitchy flight attendant and her entourage, a flirty self-centered pilot, a chef more preoccupied for the staff than for the food and an oscar-nominated actress with a big secret, there's enough drama to fill several books. Oh, and don't forget the sexy scenes (plane toilets are there for something, aren't they?). Even if one of the scenes made me laugh out loud after discovering the chef "big" secret (curious, aren't you?).

I absolutely love this author, as I always know that when a read one of Rebecca's books, I know that I'm in for a treat. Pure indulgence on so many levels, it's got everything. I liked the bitching among the crew the best to be honest. I was expecting to like the mystery of the stalker as well as the murderer but I was really disappointed to read about both of them. I figured out the stalker pretty early. With the murderer, there wasn't enough to go on. I think Rebecca Chance wanted to add more drama and more interest by revealing that there is a murderer onboard but didn't elaborate anything. The murderer was barely mentioned few times save for an introduction. Catalina, one of the celebrities had to deal with a lot throughout the flight. Her stalker is on board and that added a lot of mystery. I changed my mind about who the stalker was several times.

I was also a little confused by the author adding chapters about other characters that seemed to bring nothing to the book, as they had nothing to do with the plot. I guess I know what was the purpose of this, as Ms Chance was here and there adding some information that may be misleading for the reader, that may shake their opinion and that may make them change their minds about the characters and guessing, who the stalker is - I truly didn't know who is the stalker, and thanks to those extra information about different characters I was changing my opinion about who it can be.