“Freefall” is a promising debut novel for the author writing under the pseudonym Jessica Barry. The novel’s premise is straightforward: Will the supposedly dead survivor of a private plane crash make it home alive?

Allie survives a plane crash in the Rockies but, along with the pilot, is presumed dead. Back in Maine, her mother, Maggie, receives the devastating news, but, because no body is recovered from the flame-ravaged wreckage, she tenaciously and inexplicably refuses to give up hope that her daughter is still alive. Maggie sets out to discover the truth while Allie struggles over mountains and through forests, searching for a pathway out of her nightmarish predicament.

Because “Freefall” is a suspense novel, more drama than “will she or won’t she get home” is required. The author delivers: Allie is being chased through the mountains by unknown assailants for murky reasons that don’t begin to become clear until the last half of the book.

The story is told in short chapters that alternate between Maggie’s and Allie’s points of view. Initially, Allie’s voice is effectively conveyed through short, staccato stream-of conscious bursts. “Breathe. Breathe. My eyes open. A canopy of trees above. A flock of birds stare down before taking flight.” But after only a few pages, Allie disappointingly morphs into a straightforward first-person narrator, a style almost identical to the one implemented in Maggie’s chapters. Had the author been able to maintain Allie’s terse inner monologue through her present struggles, the tone of the entire novel would have been intensified and enhanced.

In Maggie, Ms. Barry has created a sympathetic, realistic character who vacillates between sorrow over her daughter’s apparent death, an inability to believe that she is actually dead, and guilt over the inevitable missteps she has made throughout their mother-daughter relationship. When the police arrive to inform Maggie of Allie’s death, her reaction is spot-on. “I just knew. It’s what all parents know deep down is coming for them. That one day, they’ll get a phone call or a knock on their door and in that instant, their world will cease to exist.”

Allie’s character, the late-20s college graduate with a sinful past who lives through a plane crash, treks through the mountains despite multiple injuries and tries to flee and outwit the bad guys, is less realistic. Can a skinny city girl with a bone-deep festering thigh gash, head and shoulder injuries, no compass, and only four Luna bars, a handful of nuts and one canteen of water survive even one night in the forest let alone get out alive? But good suspense novels apparently require spunky, almost super-powered heroines, and Allie ultimately delivers, albeit as one who may or may not make it through the multiple obstacles placed in her path.

The narrative rotates between Allie and Maggie’s present predicaments and Allie’s initially immoral but recently glamorous past in San Diego. Her backstory, which includes a tycoon fiance who owns a pharmaceutical company that has created a post-partum depression wonder drug, is key to understanding why Allie finds herself being chased through the Rockies.

“Freefall” takes its time to provide these clues and insights. Some readers may grow impatient or feel manipulated by the pace while others may be intrigued by the slow leak of information. If readers stay with the book they will be rewarded; the ending resolves the essential issues and, as an added bonus, provides an unexpected and satisfying twist. “Freefall” may not be a true-crime novel, but it makes for a good winter escape.

Susan Pearlstein is a Pittsburgh attorney who volunteers at the Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale.

First Published: February 3, 2019, 3:00 p.m.