MWSA Review

More realities circling in tandem then a stack above LAX International. If you love philosophy, guns, sex and flights of imagination, then follow Richard Barone down the rabbit hole and into the Blue Room. You'll find him in there, lost in existential angst.

One of my favorite words is perturbation. Barone uses it and knows what it means. In fact, “Lost in the Blue Room” weaves past and future possibilities into a tapestry of extrapolations only a government agent, hashish smoking, deadheading airline marshall with too many hours at 35,000 feet can imagine. That much time and intellect will have anyone agitated, not to mention foot high lovers with a penchant for chaos.

Let’s be honest, you won’t remember all the details, there are way too many unless you are compulsive enough to re-read once or twice, but there is no way to forget this read either. It will live in your memory and blossom into a flavor and brew uniquely your own. What a lovely gift beyond the read itself!

Reviewed by: Carmen Stenholm (July 2011)

Author's Synopsis

Would the Twin Towers still be standing if federal air marshals were flying on September 11, 2001? Ex-sky marshal Jack High thinks so, and he’s about to make the government and airlines pay for their gross negligence. Armed with a top-secret smart gun, he hijacks a new blended-wing airliner and demands that the passengers take a journey with him back to 1970 when the original sky marshals flew.

With a taste of ashes still in their memories of 9/11, the passengers savor first class meals and comply with the skyjacker's demands. 

Andrea flies first class for a living, compliments of the besieged airlines. He is a college professor, a plastic surgeon, a Buddhist monk, or anyone a sky marshal can be, except, of course, a sleeping passenger. To survive boring hours of wakefulness, waiting for a skyjacker to strike, she writes a journal that challenges the man of her past with the woman of his present. Highly addicted to the anonymity of the job, Andrea explores drugs, violence, and sex, loses sight of the destination, and turns the story into a terrorism of obscurity--the very thing the passengers are helpless to destroy.

Written by a former sky marshal, this book takes place in jumbo jets, communal apartments, hotel rooms, and blue rooms. Boardrooms and courtrooms are not on the itinerary.