Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

"Cause of death. Age of death." She comes to be known as "the Death Lady" as she walks down the aisle of the flight from Hobart to Sydney, predicting passengers' demises. Civil engineer Leo will die of a workplace accident at age 43. Ethan, on his way home from a friend's funeral, will die of an assault at age 30 (he's 29). Sue Sullivan will die of pancreatic cancer; baby Timmy Binici will drown at age seven. Though rattled, most passengers ignore her words as the ramblings of an unwell old woman, until her predictions start coming true. Moriarty (Apples Never Fall, 2021) interweaves stories of the lives of the passengers post-flight as they contend with what they believe to be their destinies with the life of Cherry, the Death Lady, whose mother worked as a psychic, but whose relationship with fate becomes much more complicated as her story is slowly revealed. Questions of determinism versus free will and chance versus fate are interspersed with tales of love—familial, romantic, and platonic—in this wonderful novel where every detail matters. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Moriarty's novels are always a big deal, bolstered by popular adaptations of her work (see this spring's streaming series Apples Never Fall).

Publishers Weekly
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A woman upends strangers’ lives by predicting their deaths in the powerful latest from bestseller Moriarty (Apples Never Fall). Travelers aboard a delayed flight from Hobart, Australia, to Sydney are already on edge when a woman stands, points at a fellow passenger, and pronounces, “I expect catastrophic stroke. Age seventy-two.” She moves down the aisle, foretelling the causes and ages of death of several more passengers before the cabin crew intervenes. She then sleeps until landing and disembarks as though nothing had happened. Most assume the “soothsayer” has mental health problems—until one of her prognostications comes true three months later. Everyone is rattled, but none more than the other passengers she hit with premonitions: a nurse apparently slated to get terminal cancer, a young mother and swim instructor whose child will supposedly drown, and starry-eyed newlyweds whose marriage (which their families look down upon) will purportedly end in “intimate partner homicide.” Moriarty’s meticulously plotted tale—which follows each of the doomed passengers as they reckon with their alleged fate—rivets even as it thoughtfully contemplates free will, determinism, and the value of living passionately. The exquisitely rendered characters earn readers’ full investment as they contemplate how much credence to give the Damoclean sword hanging over their heads, and the pinwheeling narrative maintains near-constant tension. Moriarty has outdone herself. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Sept.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

What would you do if you knew when you were going to die? In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the elderly woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either). A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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Moriarty's (Apples Never Fall) latest follows travelers stranded on a delayed Australian flight between Hobart and Sydney. Nerves are at a breaking point when an older woman stands, points at a nearby passenger, and states how and when he will die. Without pausing, she moves on to predict the deaths of the others—everyone from an infant (drowning at age seven) to a new bride (intimate-partner homicide at age 25) to a gentle flight attendant (self-harm at age 28) who haplessly tries to put an end to the prognostications. Caroline Lee, a longtime and much-lauded narrator of Moriarty's audiobooks, voices the older woman—Cherry, who, much to her horror, comes to be known as the Death Lady. Lee's depiction of Cherry is a tour de force, capturing her infectious warmth, her sorrow over the predictions she made, and her remembrances of the relationships that shaped her over the years. Geraldine Hakewill portrays the other passengers, sensitively conveying their panic and dread as they try to disprove Cherry's predictions and consider fate and free will. The novel vibrates with tension, sweetened by glimpses into the passengers' lives and tender relationships. VERDICT Unputdownable and entirely affecting, this superbly narrated audio is a must-purchase.—Sarah Hashimoto