John Phipps

Much smarter than your average podcast: Passenger List reviewed

As the narcosis of cliché starts taking hold, this paranoia thriller will surprise you with something inventive or daring

Passenger List is part of a subgenre I call digital paranoia, which features a recurring cast of post-Snowden hackers, traffickers and Isis converts. Image: Andriy Popov / Alamy Stock Photo
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  • Passenger List

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Passenger List opens with a carefully structured ripple of breaking news bulletins: a mysterious catastrophe, an unconvincing official explanation, the repetitive stupidity that surrounds disaster. A plane has disappeared, no wreckage has been found. A woman whose brother was on board begins to search for the truth. The authorities say it was a bird strike: a flock of geese was shredded in the engines and 200 passengers crumpled on impact with the Atlantic ocean.

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