[Series Spotlight] Kate Page Series by Rick Mofina + Excerpt

Today's series spotlight is on Rick Mofina's fourth installment in the Kate Page series, FREE FALL. Free Fall follows Kate, a reporter determine to uncover the truth behind the flight tragedies that has been occurring all over the world, certain they weren't accidents.

The Kate Page series is a Mystery Thriller with heart-pounding action-suspense that will keep readers at the edge of their seats!  To learn more about the series and author, check out the post below! 

Kate Page #4 

Publication: July 26, 2016 by Mira
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CRISIS IN THE SKIES

Pilots with no control…High above the Adirondack Mountains, a commuter flight to New York City turns into a rolling, twisting nightmare, plunging from the sky before the crew regains control. Then, in London, a jetliner crashes into the runway, killing fifteen people.

Investigators with no answers…  Reporter Kate Page believes something beyond mechanical—or human—error is behind the incidents that have air investigators baffled. But the mystery deepens as teams scramble to pinpoint a link between the tragedies, and Kate receives an untraceable message from someone boasting responsibility and threatening another event.

A looming disaster…As Kate, the FBI and the NTSB race to find answers, the shadow figures behind the operation launch their most devastating plan yet, and time ticks down on one of the greatest tragedies the world has ever known.

EXCERPT

1

You’re not going to die today.

Kayla repeated her prayer as the boarding call for her flight at Buffalo Niagara International Airport was announced. 
Her thoughts raced as she clutched her boarding pass and ID while inching through the line to Gate 20. 
After the gate agent had cleared her, Kayla felt Logan’s reassuring hand on her shoulder as they walked along the jetway to their plane.

“You’re gonna be fine,” he said.

She offered him a weak smile. Drawing on the advice she’d absorbed from her motivational books and recordings, 
she fought her fear of flying by repeating her mantra.

I can do this. I’ve faced worse.

The jet was a new-model regional aircraft with eighty-six passenger seats, and today’s flight was full. 
Their seats were in the fourteenth row on the left side. Logan took the aisle. Kayla took the window.

After they’d stowed their bags overhead Kayla buckled her belt and continued battling her anxiety by attacking her scariest thoughts.
This plane is not going to crash. I’m safe. My boyfriend’s with me.
Logan took her hand in his and tried to calm her.

The jet’s door was shut and locked. The attendants ensured the overhead bin doors were closed
 and seats and trays were up as the plane pushed back from the gate.
 The cabin lights flickered as the engines came on and the plane taxied out.
“Logan, the wings are bouncing.”

“It’s okay. They’re built to flex like that. It’s normal.”
As the attendants gave safety demonstrations about seat belts, 
flotation devices and emergency exits, for use “in the unlikely event…” 

Kayla heard the hydraulic moan of the flaps as they were adjusted by the pilot. 
The plane turned then stopped for several moments. 
As the engines whined louder another chime sounded.
“Attendants, prepare for takeoff.”

The knot in Kayla’s stomach tightened as the plane began rolling down the runway, 
slowly at first, gaining speed then accelerating faster, the ground blurring beneath them. 
Kayla struggled to control her breathing as the jet’s nose rose before she heard a thud 
when the weight lifted from the landing gear and the plane left the ground.
The thrust was overwhelming as the force of the climb pushed her into her seat. 
Kayla heard the groan and bump of the landing gear’s retraction. 
She squeezed Logan’s hand, shutting her eyes for a moment. 
Somehow, she found the strength to peek down at the earth, 
the expressways, buildings and suburbs rapidly shrinking below.

I can do this. I can do this.

As the plane leveled off, Kayla took a deep breath to calm herself, and the flight attendant 
made a series of announcements about keeping seat belts fastened, using electronic devices and 
the upcoming in-flight refreshment service.
Not long after they’d received their drinks there was another announcement.

“This is Captain Raymond Matson with First Officer Roger Anderson. 
On behalf of our entire crew, welcome aboard EastCloud Flight Forty-nine Ninety. 
Very shortly we’ll reach our cruising altitude of twenty-seven thousand feet. 
Everything’s looking good. We have no weather ahead of us and no traffic jams at LaGuardia,
so we expect a very smooth flight arriving on time.
We should have you in New York at the gate in about an hour and ten minutes.”
“There you go,” Logan said. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

Kayla nodded and sipped her drink.

“Hey, smile,” he said, pointing his phone at her. “I’m making a documentary of your first flight.”
Kayla waved.

“I’m really doing it. I’m flying. I’m nervous but I’m doing it.”

Then she turned to her window to take in the view below.

“It’s so pretty down there. Where are we?”

“I think we’re over the Catskill Mountains,” Logan said.

“Oh, I’ve got to take a picture.”

Kayla held up her phone to the window but it flew from her hand and her seat belt cut deep into her as the plane suddenly rolled hard, 
the right wing tipping toward the ground as if the jet was flipping over.
Bodies bumped over seats as people not belted were tossed to the right wall, 
along with laptops, backpacks and purses amid shrieks and loud bangs as items thudded and hammered in the overhead bins. 
The service trolley crashed into passengers in the right rows, spilling hot coffee and raining down cans of soda and juice.

The jet froze with its wings in a twelve-and-six-o’clock position.
Kayla clawed at Logan, locking her arms around him as people screamed, cursed and prayed.
Then the plane lurched hard to the left with the left wing pointing directly to the earth.
Again, bodies flew through the cabin, slamming against other passengers, the wall and the overhead luggage bins. 
The bin doors opened and luggage tumbled like boulders along the left row.
Logan reached out to grab an older woman who’d fallen into them but she slipped from his grip as the jet suddenly rolled right until it was almost level.

Now it began dropping, banking downward, as if it would spiral out of control. Passengers yelled and screamed,
some calling out to God before the crew regained control and finally leveled the plane.

“Please, please, let this be over,” Kayla whispered through her tears.

In the aftermath, the attendants, despite being hurt and bleeding, took charge. 
Even as the sounds of crying and moaning passengers filled the plane, people began helping each other. 
Kayla thrust her face into Logan’s chest, slid her arms around him and sobbed, 
feeling his heart beating rapidly against her face.

Logan held her tight as the jet resumed a smooth flight.

Kayla prayed for the plane to land.

Get us back on the ground! Please, God, get us back on the ground!
Her cheek twitched as something wet and warm splashed on her skin; 
one drop then another. As she pulled back, she saw blood dripping down on them from the little boy 
who’d been contorted into the open luggage bin above them. 

Kate Page #1

An anguished mother loses her baby in a deadly storm…
A kind stranger helps Jenna Cooper protect her baby boy when a killer tornado rips through a Dallas flea market. But in the aftermath, Jenna can't find her son or the woman who'd been holding him.

A journalist under pressure breaks the story…
Upon discovering the tragedy, reporter and single mom Kate Page, battling for her career and trying to hold her life together, vows to determine what happened to tiny Caleb Cooper.

A vortex of life-and-death forces…
As the FBI launches an investigation amid the devastation, Kate uncovers troubling clues to the trail of the woman last seen with the baby—clues that reveal a plot more sinister than anybody had imagined. Against mounting odds, Kate risks everything in the race to find the truth…before it's too late.

Kate Page #2

Deep in the woods of upstate New York a woman flees a blazing barn. She is burned beyond recognition, and her dying words point police to a labyrinth of "confinement rooms"-rooms designed to hold human beings captive-where they make other chilling discoveries.

In Manhattan, Kate Page, a single mom and reporter with a newswire service, receives a heart-stopping call from a detective on the case. A guardian angel charm found at the scene fits the description of the one belonging to Kate's sister, Vanessa, who washed away after a car crash in a mountain river twenty years ago.

Kate Page #3

Terror claws into the lives of an American family… 

On a quiet night in their tranquil suburban home, the Fulton family awakens to a nightmare. Four armed men force bank manager Dan Fulton to steal a quarter million dollars from his branch—strapping remote-detonation bombs on him, his wife, Lori, and their young son. 

A relentless reporter discovers an agonizing secret… 

The FBI moves swiftly with a major investigation while Kate Page, a reporter with a newswire service, digs deep into the story. In the wake of the Fulton family's abduction, questions emerge, including one of the most troubling: is the case linked to Lori Fulton's tragic past? 

Time ticks down on a chilling plan… 

Working as fast as they can, Kate and the investigators inch closer to a devastating truth—it's not only the Fultons' lives at stake, but thousands of others…and every second counts in the race to save them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rick Mofina is a former crime reporter and the award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. He’s interviewed murders face-to-face on death row and patrolled with the LAPD and the RCMP. His true crime articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Reader’s Digest, and Penthouse. He’s reported from the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, Qatar and Kuwait’s border with Iraq.

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