At first, Jennie Shortridge’s novel When She Flew seems to alternate between stories of a homeless girl and her Iraq War veteran father and a policewoman named Jess who has a lot of hang-ups about her daughter. After a bit the two stories become one and the pace really picks up. According to my tweets, it was around page 160 when things really got moving and I then read avidly through to the pitch perfect ending.
In the early chapters I was quite taken by the story narrated by Lindy, the young homeless girl who is in some ways caring for her Iraq War veteran father (called in the novel Pater, a little touch of Latin that I personally loved) as they live in a secluded outdoor home in a state park just north of a fictional Oregon city, Columbia, that bears a striking resemblance to Portland. One day Lindy goes chasing after a blue heron and is sighted by a hiker, whose report to the Columbia Police Department will soon bring a troop of cops into her life. I was, honestly, considerably less interested in police officer Jessica’s ruminations and regrets about her relationship with her daughter, Nina.
In the later chapters, Shortbridge does an excellent job of moving the story along, from the police’s first encounters with Lindy and her father, to the pivotal moment when officer Jess will disobey orders and return Lindy to her father rather than deliver her into the foster care system to the subsequent involvement of a prominent but publicity shy church with friends in many high places. The conclusion, in which the reader learns that Jess did indeed get away with it, and seems to be on an improving course in her troubled relationship with Nina and perhaps even on the road to romance with a fellow police officer.
I was very impressed by Shortbridge’s ability to make me care about the police woman, who initially came across rather unsympathetically to me. And indeed by the final chapter I was well hooked and most pleased with the ending. If you enjoy contemporary fiction, When She Flew by Jennie Shortbridge is Recommended.
