Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Nelson DeMille on Night Fall: An Exclusive Essay
It was a true story, the explosion of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island in 1996, that inspired Nelson DeMille to write the fictional Night Fall. Read this Amazon.com exclusive essay for insight into the coincidences that made this tragedy a subject DeMille couldn't ignore.

Rated by buyers
- A long road to nowhere
I will try to make this review as helpful as possible without wasting much more of my time thinking about this book. I do, however, feel the need to steer people clear of this one.
I wonder if DeMille had to meet a certain word count for his publisher. It is slow and VERY repetitive, taking its time to (very) slowly deliver the plot. It takes him a good 600 pages to build up to the climax and by the time I got there I was very curious to see how this was going to unfold.
Instead, the author takes such a cheap way out -- none of the loose ends are tied up. Well, maybe one...but barely. It's almost as if he wrote himself into a corner that he couldn't get out of. I am tempted to explain DeMille's incredibly cheap way out but I won't in case you choose to form your own opinion.
DeMille's writing style is decent. Sometimes funny, sometimes juvenile. His narrative is pretty good, but his dialogue can be pretty cringe-worthy (but not nearly as bad as Baldacci's).
The book is a long way to go with virtually no payoff. This is the very first book of DeMille's that I have read, so perhaps fans of his will like it.
Rated by buyers
- Worthy, But Not His Best
Nelson DeMille has for years been one of my favorite authors, gotta love that bad-boy Corey...but if this had been my very first DeMille read I probably would not bother again. The ending is disappointing and flat, and seemed like a cop-out on unraveling the controversy. This novel just doesn't hold your interest as most of his work does, plus terrorism is not a plotline I find interesting. Something is missing here, and it could be due to the fact-based plot. I will continue to read DeMille. When he gets it right it's great.
Rated by buyers
- Excellent Story and Characters
In my opinion this was a very skillfully crafted story and the pages turned quickly. If you enjoy police procedurals and anything regarding the terrorist activity prior to 9/11 you will very likely enjoy this book. I found the main character's humour very entertaining and added a lot to the story. I found the premise of the plot to be very believable and that the investigation proceeded in a plausible manner. I do agree with some of the criticism that the end came sudden and a bit too easy, and I would have found it more palatable had the author not given credit to someone at the end of the work that gave him an easy way out of the problematic corner he had painted himself into with his plot. No matter. In the end, I found this to be a most enjoyable book and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a well told mystery.
Rated by buyers
- night fall
This book was so boring and drawn out. The very first 300 pages were so repetitive that they could have been condensed to 75 pages....Hating not to finish any book I trudged on hoping.... but nothing. At page 400 I just couldn't waste anymore time with this book so I stopped and skipped to the last 50 pages. Sadly, I was able to pick up the story from there and then when I finally thought something was actually going to happen, Mr. DeMille used a national tragedy to end this horrible book leaving unanswered questions and dangling storylines...Having suffered lose in 9/11 I find his use of this event insensative and cheap. Mr. DeMille should be ashamed and it certainly does give hope to any amatuer writers because if he could get this published than anyone could.
Rated by buyers
- A violation of cardinal rules of plot -- YECH
Basic to decent plot writing is to DO SOMETHING with the elements that are introduced. This book drags us through a slow slow slow introduction of elements, and does NOTHING with any of them. The story HAS NO ENDING. A shameful waste of the reader's time.
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