AIRCRAFT AMUCK

By JAMES COLLINS

Michael Crichton's new novel, Airframe (Alfred A. Knopf; 351 pages; $26), is so camera ready, it might be poured directly onto the screen. That quality gives the book immediacy, but don't give the credit to Crichton's literary skill. He simply sketches in the familiar elements--a determined, divorced heroine; techno-speak; footsteps in the dark--and the reader, conditioned by the scores of suspense films he has seen, reflexively provides the art direction, special effects and stars (say Jodie Foster and perhaps Courteney Cox in a surprisingly strong Best Supporting Actress-nominated performance).

Casey Singleton works for Norton Aircraft in California. When an accident occurs on a Norton jet, it's her job to figure out what went wrong, aided by a gruff, profane but lovable band of engineers. She is up against corporate intriguers, angry union members and Jennifer Malone, a young, cynical producer for Newsline, a TV newsmagazine. Crichton has done a lot of research into the construction and testing of aircraft, and the detail on this subject is the most impressive part of the book. He plays fair with the mystery; the characters adequately fulfill their roles of heroes and creeps; you want to know what happens.

Crichton sometimes has morals to his stories, and here there are two: that aircraft are ingenious and safe, and that TV journalists aren't after the real truth, just great visuals--but these pearls don't get in the way. The only real problem is that the stakes are so low. How much do we care that an aircraft company may be the subject of a damning news story?

But there is also the matter of getting value for your entertainment dollar. Rated this way, books usually do much better than movies. You can get weeks of pleasure from The Pickwick Papers for the cost of a ticket to Space Jam. At $26, though, Airframe is a pretty expensive movie on paper. Why not wait for the real thing?

--By James Collins