The second chapter of Left Behind deals with the growing realisation by airline captain Rayford Steel that many of his passengers have disappeared. Poor old Hattie, the lusty stewardess of his desires, seems to have gone slightly mad yet Ray takes in in his stride. He can multitask, he can "bite his lip hard and wince at the pain" at the same time. He's that kind of hero.

We're told that many people are missing without a trace. Yet our intellectually challenged authors manage to contradict themselves right away. There are plenty of traces left behind. Mostly clothes, but there are other things left such as hearing aids. Obviously this should be really spooky, all these people suddenly vanishing from a plane at 30+ thousand feet. In the hands of a great writer one would expect so, but the narrative is so flat it reads like you're not supposed to be excited by any of this.

There's less unintentional comedy in this chapter. Russia doesn't send a few thousand megatons of nukes at the same country its airforce is flying over. No there's nothing that funny. But there are a few gems in there. We're told the plane is once more in satellite communication range of the USA - where had it been, Venus? And Buck Williams somehow hotwires the aircraft's telecommunications system from his seat so he can send messages to his editor via the "Information Superhighway". How quaint.

Yet Buck, the intrepid Buck, who has seen God swat the might of Russia and Ethopia (that kills me every time) out of the sky has no clue what's going on. There seems to be no urge in him despite being the world's greatest reporter to get to the bottom of what's going on. Similarly neither Ray or his co-pilot don't check the aircraft for major problems. They don't check the clothes left behind, they don't even get the remaining people together in one part of the plane for safety. Tens of people have disappeared into thin air and all those remaining seem to manage is ooh that was odd. It's totally baffling. For crying out loud children have been stolen and this is the most tension the writers can muster?

Ray does have a chat via radio with a Concorde crew who seem just as baffled but still not giving the impression they want to get to the bottom of this mystery. The supersonic luzury jet seems to have suffered worse than Rayford's Boeing economy wagon. They've lost fifty of their folks. What were the odds on that, half the passengers on Concorde being evangelic Christians yet at the same time corporate fat cats? Did the plane fly through the eye of a needle or something?

We do learn in this chapter that the world is falling apart. Thousands of people have similarly disappeared from important jobs such as air traffic control. Children have gone. It's a horrific event. And how much of this are we shown? None of it. It's pretty dreadful story telling really. Any writer worth his salt would have his literary camera pointed at the chaos ensuing across the globe - after all special effects via biro are free. As Rayford turns the plane around and heads back to the US we wonder what will be in store for him, what calamities will have beset the world.

The answer is Ray will find it hard to get a cab. But we'll look at that in more detail in our next episode of The Left Behind Book Club when we might even find which evil monster has stolen all the babies.