Darn it. My designated "airplane read" for the PDC was John Sandford's "Rules of Prey." Unfortunately, it's proved too good and I'm now halfway through it, which means that I'll polish it off by the time my flight is halfway to LA. The next 2 books in my queue are Umberto Eco's "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loanna" and Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," which just came out in paperback. Unfortunately, even in paperback, it weighs in at 838 pages. Eco's a favorite author of mine, but not really amenable for reading in-between services of drinks and pretzels. I need a Harlan Coben / Michael Connolly type read -- tight plotting, suspenseful but not that CSI forensics-fetish thing that seems so popular nowadays, 350 pages that'll keep me occupied from buckling in to unfolding myself at the gate.