The Way the Crow Flies is not, in my opinion, a 'murder mystery, spy thriller' as is printed on the back of the novel. Yes, there is a murder, a mystery and cold war spy drama, but the most memorable moments, and the majority of the novel, is made up of a coming of age tale and a reflection on morality and lost innocence.
The novel begins with a taste of 'the murder'. Then proceeds to set the scene for a hundred and fifty pages, with no inkling of any murder to come, I kind of forgot what the book was about and considered giving up several times before any action hit. Once it finally began to take shape, in the form of Madeline's (and her classmates) abuse, the revelation of Froelich as a German Jew who had survived a concentration camp, and finally some action involving Freid, it takes off like a freight train. MacDonald effectively makes your skin crawl with her depictions of Madeline's torturous experience in the fourth grade. She also lays some great ground work and develops a lot of interesting characters. And teases the readers with hints towards twists and turns in the 'murder mystery', forcing the reader to jump to conclusions; which I did as well. Turns out I had some right and failed to guess the final twist, which became a redeeming quality of a novel that was just far longer than it needed to be to tell what really is a great story.
Had there been a few hundred pages less, the story could have been just as effective. The chapters featuring Madeline as an adult seemed somewhat u necessary. True, important revelations occurred, and the novel wouldn't be the same without them, but so much seemed to drag on and on to me. Almost as though Macdonald was trying to reach a word minimum.
Good story if you have the patience to wait it out.
I much preferred Fall On Your Knees.