Flanagan’s Flight: A Novel

After several years working in a Newark-based bank, Jerry’s new job with a major international bank headquartered in New York City takes us on a journey through North America. Beyond the familiar territory of Bank Street (Newark and the Jersey Shore), his new assignment takes us to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Seattle. After their Bermuda honeymoon trip, Jerry and Maria eventually visit California wine country, New England and upstate New York, among other venues.

Witness some of the seminal sporting events that took place during the 1980s: World Series games in New York and Philadelphia, March Madness, the 1980 Winter Olympics, and the first night baseball game at Wrigley Field, among others. As the world continues to spin out of control, some of the decade’s defining moments are re-created: Three Mile Island, Chrysler’s near-bankruptcy, the death of John Lennon, the Challenger explosion, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Chernobyl, the leveraged buyout craze, Black Monday and the stock market crash of 1987, and to finish it off, the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.

Jerry experiences some wild rides and close calls during his extensive travels. One fateful flight on a rainy September evening turns into his worst nightmare, but he somehow emerges unscathed and a hero to the young woman he rescues. Jerry takes one last flight to the West Coast to wrap up his final audit assignment and to bring the curtain down on a renegade banker. Will he return safely to New Jersey, to the love of his life, Maria and their three children? Find out in Flanagan’s Flight .