This book was first published in 1948. Why am I reviewing it here? It was used as a metaphor by Michael Marder of the UTeach Institute - in this book the failure of a transatlantic plane due to metal fatigue is investigated. A plane called a Reindeer fails catastrophically due to metal fatigue. The crash - there is actually only one, is ascribed to pilot error. The whole affair was oddly prescient as this is very similar to the actual events surrounding the de Havilland Comet which was the first commercial airliner. Michael Marder suggests that people are doing the same thing in their analysis of education - we are blaming teachers when there are obvious systemic problems. You can find an early version of Marder's thesis here.
Nevil Shute's novel reads well - I'm sure that I have read it before - I probably read all his novels as a teenager. Michael Marder described him as the Michael Crichton of his era. To my mind Shute's books have held up better than Crichton's - both had many of their books made into movies. This book, and many others are available for the Kindle. If you happen to be in Canada, it's even simpler as many of his works have entered the public domain and they can be found on the Canadian version of Project Gutenburg. I could tell you more about the book - but I'm not going to, just read it you will most likely enjoy it.
If you want to learn more about Nevil Shute Norway, you can find lots of informational this site. Review and plot synopses for his books can be found here.
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