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When the unthinkable happens . . . En route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Tampa International, Flight 848 bursts into flames and crashes into Tampa Bay. All 261 passengers and crew are killed. For one week, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder and her fellow reporters cover one of the nation's worst air disasters in years with overwhelming and numbed emotions. Then a woman Peyton's never met gives her a plastic bag that has washed up behind her house. The bag contains a note, almost certainly from the doomed flight, with a simple yet wrenching message: T- I love you. All is forgiven. -Dad Combing through the passenger list to find the victims whose children's names begin with T, Peyton is determined to deliver the note to its proper owner. A quest which will prove as important to Peyton's own life as to the mysterious T.

A reporter comes into possession of a brief note which may have survived a horrific plane crash, and embarks on a search to find the person to whom it was addressed in the last moments of the writer's life.

Not a bad book, though a bit manipulative, and the ***big surprise*** that's revealed near the end is a bit of a coinky-dinky for me. The perceptive reader will probably have figured out part of the main character's backstory, and this ultimate plot twist was (a) a bit much; and (b) unnecessary to prop up the themes of forgiveness and redemption.

The villainess character is a bit clichéd and of course gets her come-uppance in the end.

End notes call the novel a Christian parable. It could certainly be read that way, but the text itself is (fortunately) not overtly religious. ( )

3.5 stars
This book grabbed me from the start as Peyton, a newspaper journalist, searches for the recipient of a note, found in the wreckage of a doomed flight. I enjoyed following her journey as she looked for clues, but my one regret was the ending which was a disappointment as it felt rushed and rather unbelievable. However, a nice story about love, forgiveness and second chances. ( )

Many times we take second chances for granted, thinking there's more from where they came from and that there is always time in the future. Sometimes, the 'packaging' that they appear in my seem rather plain and ordinary, or even unseemly... but there's always the possibility that the best wrapped ones are merely Trojan horses! Do not squander the gift you have been given, even if it is just a note.... ( )