The Man Who Fell From the Sky is a fascinating look at a man who history has forgotten. And I found the story of this almost-unknown tycoon to be quite compelling. However, I found the author's approach to the mystery surrounding his death to be very one-sided and off-putting. I would much prefer for the author to present all the evidence (regarding all the various theories about his demise) and let the reader decide for himself. Instead, the author seems to have made up his mind from the very beginning about the manner of death, and then proceeds to massage the evidence to support his theory. This may just be my personal preference, but for me it knocked a 4-star read down to 3 stars.

This book was originally published in 1987, with audiobook made available for review purposes. Thank you CamCat Perspective and NetGalley for making it available for review.

First off, Tom Beyer, the narrator of the audiobook has done fantastic job reading this book. The audiobook is very much enjoyable. It is written by a reporter about a disappearance of a very wealthy Belgian businessman. The circumstance of his death is extraordinary, and so are the reactions of survivors. It reads like a true crime book, although there may not be any crime at all. The author infuses humor here and there, and it is an entertaining experience. To me, it does sag a little bit in the middle, but overall, I am glad to have encountered this book and hope more people would read it because it is well written!

The concept of this book intrigued me right away! Circumstances surrounding a mystery death??? Yes please.
Any reader who enjoys books about investigations will love this book. I really appreciate how Norris walked the reader through every step of the process and spoke about his thoughts and reactions to things. This part of the book translated particularly well to audio, because it almost made me feel like a friend was telling me a story.
This book does drag a bit, and perhaps gets overly detailed at times, to the point where I had to rewind to remind myself what was happening.
An additional... Nitpick about the audio was the narrator's use or accents. The first time he attempted an accent I laughed... Which I don't think was the intention. His use of accents was very grating at times... So listener beware. If that's something that would bother you, it's probably best to read this one.

This story strives to fill in the details surrounding Alfred Loewenstein's life and untimely death. The author was very thorough and made good inferences and logical progressions. At times there were too many details, especially regarding the intricacies of 1920's financial law and stock options. Regardless, it held my interest and I enjoyed the development of the author's theory, and learning details about general historical topics.

I would recommend it to teens and adults who enjoy history and unsolved mysteries.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The man who fell from the sky is about financier Alfred Loewenstein who fell out of an airplane and died at the height (pardon the pun) of his wealth and power. No one saw him fall/stumble/jump out of his private plane, but yet he was gone.

William Norris got a tip about this wild character and thus began an obsession into figuring out everything about Loewenstein himself, and specifically about the circumstances of his death.

I enjoyed how the author inserted himself into the story and into his thought process of what could have happened in that plane. The story was gripping and I was guessing throughout the whole book about what on earth could have happened. I'm majorly impressed with William Norris' ability to make me care so much about something that happened 100 years ago.

All that said, I do have 2 gripes:
1. The narrator for this title did a lot of accents-- Cockney, British posh, old lady, French, Belgian, etc. None of them was particularly good? And they were overall very distracting. I wish he would have just read those in his normal voice.
2. Some of the stock exchanges, business buyouts, and commercial espionage plots were spelled out with really intense and excruciating detail. I think each of these little dramas could have been shortened and simplified in order to keep things from getting too in the weeds. (and boring) I understand that some of this was needed in order for us to know who the major players and suspects were.... but I did start to lose some interest when we had been listening to stock talk for 20 minutes.


Overall, I would recommend this to readers who enjoy a good mystery and maybe specifically those who have a special interest in the time period right before the stock crash of 1929.

This was an impulse decision when I saw this on NetGalley. I was planning not to request anything to review on NetGalley as my TBR is getting a little out of hand. But there was something about this that caught my attention and made me hit request. Maybe it's the Murderino in me that makes me listen to true crime podcasts such as My Favourite Murder, Tenfold More Wicked & Criminalia (and the podcasts you guys [including my sister] recommend such as The Missing Crypto Queen and The Lazarus Heist). Maybe it's because I went "Oh, this sounds good". Or maybe it's because a man fell out of a plane and NO ONE NOTICED!

Captain Alfred Loewenstein was known as many things during his glamorous and gaudy life. A multi-millionaire that's a maker and loser of his fortunes (and others around him). But all that wealth didn't save him one July evening in 1928 when he boarded his aircraft with six others to fly from England to Brussels and, halfway through the flight, he vanished. Everyone says that he fell through an exit door that he mistaken for the toilet.

But things don't add up about his death. The story the pilots and the other passengers don't exactly match up or make sense, and the officials don't seem to look too hard into the death. Many suspect that his fall was a simple accident, while others wonder if he had committed suicide. And others... others wonder if he was pushed or thrown off the plane. But who would do that, and why?

That's what investigative journalist William Norris decides to do in the mid-80s...

I am going to admit this, I didn't realise this book is a rerelease as, originally, this was first published in the mid/late 80s (1987, according to Google). I sense the recent interest in true crime in the past few years has made the publisher republish this.

Now, I admit I am not a biggest True Crime lover. I find looking at cases interesting and wondering how the Police missed evidence (the joy of hindsight). But True Crime isn't a genre I go towards naturally. I do have a few true crime novels on my TBR (one being I'll Be Gone in the Dark, which I will do once I feel brave) and the one I audiobooked a few years ago - "The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper" by Hallie Ruebenhold - still lingers with me.

So, going into this, I was a little wary, but intrigued to find out how this multi-millionaire died so mysterious and how he seems to have been forgotten in history. And I came away from this feeling a little... meh.

I feel that maybe the reason for this is that I didn't feel like I got to known Alfred Loewenstein or the author. I always felt at arm's length and, because of that, I kept going "But why? Why should I care about this man's death? Why do you care about this man's death?". With The Five, I felt like I understood these women and why the media portrayed them the way that they did, but here... I never really understood Alfred Lowenstein's drive - I understood that he was driven and ruthless/cunning in business (and that people around him liked him for his talent with money and nothing else) but I never understood him, if this makes sense.

Maybe I had my hopes too high. I am a bit of a novice/newbie to this genre. Maybe if you are a more seasoned reader, this would be right up your street. But for me, I see its merit and I see what it was trying to do, but it didn't work for me in the way I hope.

I did not know when NetGalley was gracious enough to send me the Audiobook entitled “The Man Who Fell From The Sky” that this book was written many years ago by William Morris. Further, the book tells the tale of the mysterious death of Captain Alfred Lowenstein even farther back in time (1928) who, at the time, was one of the richest people in the world. Captain Lowenstein stepped into a private airplane one day in June 1928 and “deplaned” by falling out of the plane over the English Channel to be found a week or so later.
Mr. Morris tells the story of his investigation of Lowenstein’s death and comes up with enough evidence to point to Lowenstein’s death likely being a murder, not an accident or suicide as previously thought. Morris is a great writer who writes this non-fiction story as if it is a popular fictional murder mystery. So enjoy this Audiobook narrated by an excellent voice actor.

I was completely unfamiliar with the life and (most importantly) with the mysterious death of 1920’s millionaire Alfred Loewenstein prior to this book. That said that actually really surprises me because it’s such an interesting mystery that I’m so glad the author decided to embark on a journey to discover the real circumstances of his death. The investigation is so thorough that it feels like you’re in a detective novel, but alas it’s real life. I appreciate that some clues only lead to dead ends because that’s how real investigations go and provides authenticity to the experience. I think every fan of mysteries and puzzle solving will enjoy this book.
I wasn’t a fan of all the narrators decisions in the audiobook, particularly the accents and high pitched voices.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of the audiobook!

William Norris has done a thorough job of investigating every last detail in Loewenstein’s life, including rather a lot of forensic accounting. Most of the details were interesting, and I loved the way that he went about looking in what could have happened with the plane’s door. I think it’s safe to say that no stone was left unturned.

There was rather a lot of information, about two thirds of the way through, about stocks and share, and as someone who doesn’t know a great deal about 1920s financing, I felt this section to be rather dry. However, I’m sure that it was a valuable point of the tale for anyone who does know about this type of thing, and it did turn out to be relevant. Some listeners may like to skip through this bit though!

The quality of the narration was excellent. However, I was a little bit confused by the narrator feeling the need to adopt a high-pitched voice when reading out quotations from females. Equally annoying was that he put on a northern English accent when quoting northerners. They only time that I’ve seen this done outside of fiction is by my Year 7 drama group – I tell them that it’s silly, and I’d say the same to this narrator. It’s pointless, and as a northern female myself, I found it rather offensive.

Overall, this was a meticulously researched true crime story, which was narrated with interest and expression. An enjoyable listen which wasn’t reliant on any prior knowledge of Loewenstein or his life.

Prior to encountering this book, I was not familiar with the story of the story of Alfred Lowenstein, a wealthy banker/businessman who mysteriously fell from his plane over the English Channel in 1928.
This book asks if his disappearance was suicide, an accident, or an elaborate hoax … and considers not only the why, but the how. If he really did fall from the plane, how did that happen?
The author, William Norris, has done extensive research, including speaking to people who were alive at the time & worked on the aeroplanes. The book is also very well paced - as the story progresses, he continually answers the question that I was starting to ask! By the end of the book, he provides a convincing hypothesis as to what probably did happen though nobody will ever be 100% sure! There are some dry moments when the inner-workings of investments/types of shareholdings are being discussed, but overall this is an accessible true-crime story that reads much like a novel.
I listened to the audiobook & the narrator kept my attention throughout – I doubt the author would have done a better job of narrating this book. Initially I was surprised to hear an American accent, given that the setting is predominantly UK & France, with occasional forays to other parts of Europe & across the Atlantic to Canada/USA. There are occasional niggles with the pronunciation of certain words but the narrator seems to have achieved a slightly ironic tone at times which works really well!

I was not familiar with the story of the story of millionaire banker Captain Alfred Lowenstein who mysteriously fell from his plane over the English Channel in the 1928.

I found The Man Who Fell From the Sky completely engaging and riveting. Was his disappearance a suicide, an accident, or a planned disappearance?

William Norris undertook extensive research and, despite coming to the story fifty years after the event, found sources still alive who helped him investigate the Lowenstein mystery.

The narrator Tom Beyer was excellent and really brought the story to life.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers CamCat Perspectives for making this eAudio ARC available to me for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed this historical true crime. The Man Who Fell from the Sky, first published in the 1980s, both tells the story of Loewenstein's extraordinary life and of Norris's investigation of his death. Like Norris, I'm surprised that such a controversial and prominent figure has disappeared from the popular memory.

The sections on Loewenstein's byzantine business dealings are well explained, but for those who are less interested in the role of the holding company or the voting rights of different types of share, he does break it up with the human side of the story (along with some stereotypical views of women).

The mystery of his bizarre fall from a plane to his death, unsurprisingly, is not clearly resolved by the end, but Norris does provide a convincing hypothesis (no spoilers, obvs).

Re the narration: I was surprised that the book had an American narrator, given that Norris is British and much of the action takes place in Britain (although Loewenstein was Belgian and travelled frequently across the Channel). Presumably because the audiobook is aimed at a US audience? I was, however, won over by the narrator's wry tone which is a good match for Norris's voice, even if he didn't quite nail some of the regional accents!
*
I received a copy of the audiobook of The Man Who Fell from the Sky from the publisher via Netgalley.

Thank you NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a very interesting read. Learning about Alfred Lowenstein, specifically how he died and possible scenarios was fun.
I would consider this true crime that reads like fiction.

The writing and the story are very interesting. However, there is something off with the audio in the audiobook. This book appears well researched. The author goes through many of the conflicting reporting out at the time and draws good conclusions. He answers many questions that arise as I had them. However, I recommend this book not in audio format.