William Sullivan | Fiction, 2012
411 pages
William Sullivan CAN write fiction! I have read and perused numerous William Sullivan books, all non-fiction (see my recent review of Listening for Coyote), but this is the first fiction of his I have read. And yes, he is multi-talented. He can write trail descriptions, nonfiction, and fiction.
In this tale, we discover there are two D.B. Coopers ... the Good Cooper and the Bad Cooper. Portland police lieutenant Neil Ferguson leads the search for both of them. Sullivan has well-developed characters, with breadth and depth, and his take is interesting and somehow, credible, more than 40 years after D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane and parachuted out with $200,000 somewhere over the Pacific Northwest.
I finally decided to go with three hearts because I think The Case of D.B. Cooper’s Parachute is somewhat over-written. I think it could have been tighter, more condensed, a few characters lighter. If you are a Portlandian, or a frequent Portland visitor (I am not), you may particularly enjoy this mystery which, except for a brief foray to Russia, takes place almost exclusively amidst the landmarks and alleyways of Portland.
Interesting story about the night DB Cooper highjacked the plane. I was young and married to my first husband, Vic. The FBI contacted Vic that same night, because Vic was the president of the local skydiving club in Portland. We were amazed at how fast they were on it. They were wondering if DB was known locally or regionally, and had some questions about the parachute, etc. So it hit close to home for us! Alas, we were not able to help.
You might especially enjoy this book, since you are part of the story! Well, almost …