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I hate flying. Like, hate it.
Most of the time, I’d rather take a long car ride, even if it’s inconvenient, just to avoid airports, crowded parking lots, people, and everything that comes with flying across the country. No thanks.
But at times, air travel is inevitable, so when I have to fly, my go-to source of entertainment isn’t the in-flight movie options, but rather a book I’ll bring along to help me pass the time. That got me thinking, though—what are the very best thrillers for a long flight? I’m talking about the titles that are so engaging and so good that they’ll make even the most extended, exhausting flights feel short.
Never a fan of guesswork, I realized that I needed an expert to help me answer this question. I initially thought about calling one of my author friends who’s a pilot and still flying, like Jack Stewart or Ward Larsen, but I really wanted to shape this article from the perspective of a passenger. So, I needed someone who spends a lot of time in the air reading, and that is when I thought of my friend, Colter Bostick.
Colter, an aspiring writer (I’ve read his stuff, FYI, and he’s excellent—almost like C.J. Box meets Taylor Moore), has become known in the thriller world for his airport and airplane selfies. This guy spends more time on planes than anyone I know, and he’s always reading.
So, I hit him up and asked him point-blank: Which thrillers are so good that they’ll make a long flight feel short?
To answer, Colter wrote the article below for me.
Happy reading!
Skip the In-Flight Movie—These Thrillers Pack More Action Than Hollywood
by Colter Bostick
Let’s be honest . . . airports and plane travel are terrible.
You have to arrive at the airport 1-2 hours before your flight so you can slog your way through the ridiculousness that is TSA security (and this applies to everyone, regardless of TSA Pre status, and don’t get me started about unopened water bottles).
Then you can go sit down at some restaurant with insanely up-charged prices or at your gate to kill time, praying that the weather system on the other side of the county hasn’t disrupted your flight’s schedule, which could cause anything from a thirty-minute delay to you spending the night in the airport Hilton when you didn’t pack for an overnight stay.
Finally, you get to deal with chaos in its purest form—the boarding process.
Cramming dozens, sometimes hundreds, of strangers into a pressurized aluminum sardine can and expecting everyone to abide by the rules of polite society and hygiene is a recipe for a significant headache.
Sound about right?
Welcome to my life at least 3-5 times per week. Because of my job, I’m forced to spend at least half of my time battling airports and the traveling hordes as I jump around the country for work.
People ask me all the time if it ever gets old, and my response tends to shock them.
Absolutely not.
Why?
I’m not a psychopath, I promise.
The answer is quite simple:
It gives me a lot of time to read!
I spend my time in the terminals (unless I’m in certain airports scouring bookstore shelves for those elusive Jack Carr signed paperbacks) or at cruising altitude reading. And let me tell you, with the amount of time it takes to fly a quarter of a million miles per year, I’ve had a lot of time to read.
Now, let me be clear. I don’t just read anything on these flights. I may have a lot of time on my hands, but I still have high standards for what’s worthy of my reading time, especially in the chaotic and stressful surroundings of the airport and in the exit row of a Boeing 737 MAX8 (hint, hint…wink, wink if you know what carrier I’m primarily flying with and how disappointed I am about their new seating policy.)
On a long flight, especially, I need to be hooked from the very first page. I need a story to keep a blistering pace and be so gripping that I can’t possibly peel my eyes off anything else until we touch down and land wherever we’re going—period.
So, given that this is such a big part of my life, I’ve put together a short list of some of the best books (although let’s be honest, this is more about incredible authors—in no particular order) I have ever had the pleasure of reading during my travels in the hopes that you, too, will crack them open as a means of distraction from the chaos during your next adventure to the airport.
Allow me to summarize the entire Orphan X series in four simple words.
All Gas. No Breaks.
Okay, maybe a couple of breaks, but they are few and far between, and when Hurwitz does give you a minute to breath, he’s hitting you with some deeply insightful statement about human existence and does so in a way that makes you re-read the same sentence a half dozen times so you can fully digest the magnitude of its profundity.
NEMESIS is the tenth installment in the Orphan X series, and Evan Smoke is forced to go head-to-head with his best friend, Tommy Stojack. You don’t need to have read the nine previous bangers that lead up to this encounter, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t.
I picked this book up (while also having the pleasure of meeting Hurwitz at Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas, and receiving an Orphan X challenge coin) on a Wednesday night. I cracked it open at 6:00 a.m. the next morning when I arrived at my gate on my way to Charlotte, North Carolina. Between the hour and a half at the gate, the three-hour flight, and a thirty-minute delay because there was no one there to operate the jet bridge when we landed, I had gone cover to cover.
ANTIHERO, the next installment, cannot get here soon enough.
(Quick note from TRBS: I have read Antihero, and it’s crazy awesome. From my forthcoming review: “Hurwitz raises the bar again—Orphan X has never been sharper, faster, or more human. Antihero is a relentless, heart-pounding thriller with real emotional punch.)
CAPTURE OR KILL by Don Bentley
Since you are reading this on The Real Book Spy’s Substack, it is a safe assumption that you are familiar with the Mitch Rapp series. As a long-standing fan of the world and characters Vince Flynn created, and having thoroughly enjoyed each of the works Kyle Mills added to the saga, I could not get my hands on CAPTURE OR KILL fast enough when I heard Don Bentley had taken the reins.
Why?
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Formula 1 cars had passenger seats?
Crack open a Don Bentley novel and you’ll get a pretty good idea, because you’re roaring at breakneck speeds from the start with the hairpin turns along the way, you are in for one hell of a ride.
In CAPTURE OR KILL, you have all the hallmarks of Mitch Rapp, but you’re also treated to a story that races right alongside one of the most important military operations in American history—the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense.
There’s action, humor, tradecraft, and more action, and this story proves that Mitch Rapp is in great hands.
Sadly, I missed seeing Bentley at the book signing, so I was a couple of days late getting to read CAPTURE OR KILL, all thanks to a pesky engine problem or something trivial like that, which delayed my flight. Thankfully, I had a day between trips, so I picked it up and I read it while doing a single-day round trip to Nashville. I will not have that problem this year, however, because I pre-ordered DENIED ACCESS and made sure I won’t be traveling on the publishing day.
BOGEY SPADES is the third book in the Battle Born series, and it. Is. Awesome.
As I mentioned earlier, I need a story that moves quickly. I’m talking about a plot that is driven by a pace that makes a cracked-out hummingbird seem slow.
Who better to deliver something like that than a former TOPGUN pilot?
You’ve got Tom Clancy-level technical details that make you feel like you’re actually sitting in the cockpit with Colt Bancroft, and every moment with Punky King feels like you’re in an episode of 24, and the world is teetering on the brink.
I assure you that you will be locked in just like I was from the time I took off in Albuquerque, made a quick layover in Dallas, and finished ten minutes before landing in San Antonio.
The series is amazing, and although it isn’t required, I highly suggest going back to the beginning with UNKNOWN RIDER and OUTLAW, because once you get to the end of BOGEY SPADES and read the Bruce-Willis-was-actually-dead-the-whole-time-level twist that brings the whole series together, you aren’t going to want to waste a moment rushing to pick up the fourth book, DECLARED HOSTILE.