Something in the Air

by Emma Lathen

Wall Street banker/detective John Putnam Thatcher encounters intrigue along with a loan request from Sparrow Flyways, an airline whose expansion plans are not to be deterred, even by opposition from its shareholders

Genres: Mystery

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1988

About the author

Aka R.B. Dominic

Emma Lathen is the pen name of two American businesswomen: an attorney Mary Jane Latsis (July 12, 1927 -October 29, 1997) and an economic analyst Martha Henissart (b. 1929),who received her B.A. in physics from Mount Holyoke College in 1950.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/31/boo...

Reviews

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an executive vice-president for Sloan Guaranty, John Thatcher feels obligated to kind out who is conducting sabotage on a small commercial airline. The airline has approached Sloan Guaranty for backing to expand their operations. Many of the union employees are unhappy as the airlines wants to become a non-union operation.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Putnam Thatcher has to be the most passive protagonist in all of the mystery novels that I read. He is protagonist in the entire series of mystery novels by the “composite” author, Emma Lathen (composite in the sense that there were two collaborators working under this nom de plume), and has become the Executive Vice-President of the fictional Sloane Guaranty Trust by this point in the series. The advantage of this position is that it gives him enough seniority to be able to oversee whatever he might be concerned about, but keeps him accountable enough that he sometimes needs to go where he doesn’t really want to go. This allows him to delve into the nuts and bolts, dollars and sense of many different industries (perfume, automobile, athletics, international currency, and more).

Something in the Air deals with the initial introduction of “no frills” airlines and demonstrates the inevitable tension between the entrepreneurial spirit and those chosen to preserve capital. It also has an intriguing labor vs. management motif—even though part of the ideal in establishing fictional Sparrow Flyways was to avoid unionization by making the workers shareholders in the company. There is a murder that occurs in the ranks of Sparrow Flyways that points directly at dissatisfaction within the worker-shareholders or the tyrannical ego of the founding spirit of the airline. Even when the mystery seems clear-cut, Thatcher is wise enough not to accede to conventional wisdom until all of his questions are answered.

With the caution this executive would use in assessing the risk proposition of an acquisition, he allows the layers of this “onion” of a mystery to unfold. Since I enjoy both the drama of finance and the puzzle solutions necessary to untangle a mystery’s knot of intrigue, I’ve enjoyed all of these novels. Yet, they were written at the end of the 20th century. This one was published in 1988 and reflects banking, investing, mergers and acquisition scenarios, and opportunities for economic expansion that seem much more dangerous in today’s era. Maybe it’s because the airline industry is so different after 9-11 that it just doesn’t ring true, yet the era it represents is near enough to my memory that it doesn’t feel like historical fiction. At any rate, the story just wasn’t as convincing to me as in previous novels by the same team.

Maybe, part of my dissatisfaction was due to the fact that the authors introduced a strong and vital female character who was always at the fringes of the action after seeming to be a key part of the action. The resolution of her action in a critical situation simply didn’t seem to…er…”fit the crime.” I really wanted to see more of her struggle to get out of the morass of her own making rather than simply becoming a convenient ally in solving the mystery. Fortunately, there are plenty of interesting characters in this novel. And that’s a good thing, because John Putnam Thatcher may be brilliant as a banker, but he has about as much excitement to him as one would normally expect of a banker. I won’t hesitate to read more of this series, but this one missed on several levels where its sister volumes didn’t.

[Mark Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who'd have thought of a Wall Street CEO as a crime solver? Emma Lathen, that's who. Not surprising, I guess, since Emma is actually a pair of women who met at Harvard, pursued careers - one as a lawyer, the other an economist - and wrote books about John Thatcher, a man who uses his staff to investigate things.

This time around, he's investigating a murder at a start-up airline (this is set in the 1980s, when deregulation led to increased competition and a number of new airlines) that is counting on some financing from Thatcher's bank. The victim was a pilot for the airline who'd earned the animosity of fellow employees as well as management shortly before his corpse was discovered near the airline's parking lot.

There's plenty of action and some very interesting characters in this tale of violent crime and corporate infighting. There's some excellent comic relief as an employee attempt to teach management a lesson goes badly awry. There's very little not to like, and I'd certainly read others in this series.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sparrow Flyways, an East Coast commuter airline, is set for a showdown between management and employees. Sparrow is partly employee-run, which means it is not burdened with increasing union demands, so in its first five years it has been a smashing success. Now, however, CEO Mitchell Scovil plans an expansion that looks bigger than the structure can support. The employees see a huge risk to their stocks. A tumultuous meeting is followed by the murder of a pilot who has taken the bit between his teeth; and now Sparrow's various management personnel, under suspicion themselves, may not be able to keep the company alive. John Thatcher, representing a large shareholder, has no choice but to sweep in and lay bare the background plotting.

Emma Lathen presents us with her usual vivid characters, though it takes a while to get acquainted with their names and jobs.

Read 2 times

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joint authors Mary Latsis and Martha Hennissart were businesswomen themselves, and one suspects that some of their personages satirised -- mildly, or not so mildly -- people they knew. This story of murder set at a small airline with an out-of-his-depth CEO seems to give more room for acerbic fun than most, with its numerous tangents and biting comments about incompetent executives kept afloat by their secretaries. The criminal puzzle is carefully crafted, with enough clues and hints to lead to a satisfactory conclusion.

[Scilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the usual Emma Lathen mystery about John Thatcher, executive VP of the Sloan National Bank. In this book, Thatcher meets Mitch Scovil, President of Sparrow Flyways, who is visiting the Sloan. He visits the offices of Sparrow, and witnesses a wild meeting between the employees and the the officers of the company. Later, a man is murdered, so the Sloan, and Thatcher, are involved in the investigation.

[Vicki Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This murder mystery centers around an employee-owned small airline. The president and founder wants to expand to the West Coast, but many employees disagree because it will be very expensive. There's a noisy meeting when the spokesperson for the employees, sort of a buffoon, goes off message. He's later killed and suspicion falls on current and former higher-ups in the company. As usual, the characters are interesting, and Thatcher figures out whodunit.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the world of airlines meets murder. Interesting characters as usual, would have preferred a bit more Thatcher but interesting to see more Gabbler in this story. In this story, the one who is murdered, well - nobody liked him, which made for some really funny interviews with the police.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

good misdirection

[Kelli]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12141085

[Lyn Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

So great to find a book with your favourite banker, that you had not realised was missing from your collection.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for fair play, this isn't the mystery for you. But if you're looking for corporate intrigue with a sideline of mystery, you will love Emma Lathen!