I won this book, it was part of a package of three books
given out through a drawing at Read It Forward.
They usually give away one book a week, this time they gave three
away. This book I started reading as
soon as I received it and it had me wanting to stick with it, right from the
beginning. This book was set during the
depression era, also back when there were traveling circuses, gypsies, air
shows, etc. This book was really about
two families and their animosity for each other, although the younger men
really only disliked the other because their families had been telling them for
years that they shouldn’t do anything together.
A traveling air show came to town and the two young men both showed up
for the air show. One decided he wanted
to try and wing walk while up in the air, and was willing to pay double to try
it the next day. The other decided to do
it because he couldn’t let himself be out done in the eyes of the people there
from the area. The man running the show
was a bit of a shyster, always looking for his next big deal. He married a woman who had a daughter, and he
had them living in a caravan, and working the crowd and collecting money. He wasn’t always the most pleasant man. They did successfully walk on the wings of
the airplanes, and that got the shyster thinking, he needed to make them a
permanent part of the show. The story about
how things were going was very interesting as well as the back story between
their families. One of the men was
Japanese and they were doing the air shows when Pearl Harbor happened. So
another part of the story is about the camps they sent any Japanese people to
for their own safety, although many people died in those camps. They were run more like prisons. With several back stories going on at the
same time, the book was never dull or slow.
It was an easy read and I finished it over two days. I really enjoyed the book. The characters were well developed as well as
the story line. The ending was not
disappointing and was really a surprise.
Thanks again to the
people at Read It Forward and to the publisher at G.P. Putnam’s Sons it was an
amazing read and a wonderful surprise! #RIFWINNER
Description as found on Good Reads: Two young daredevil flyers confront ugly truths and family secrets
during the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II, from the
author of The Other Typist and Three-Martini Lunch.
Louis Thorn and Haruto "Harry" Yamada -- Eagle and Crane -- are the star attractions of Earl Shaw's Flying Circus, a daredevil (and not exactly legal) flying act that traverses Depression-era California. The young men have a complicated relationship, thanks to the Thorn family's belief that the Yamadas -- Japanese immigrants -- stole land that should have stayed in the Thorn family.
When Louis and Harry become aerial stuntmen, performing death-defying tricks high above audiences, they're both drawn to Shaw's smart and appealing stepdaughter, Ava Brooks. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and one of Shaw's planes mysteriously crashes and two charred bodies are discovered in it, authorities conclude that the victims were Harry and his father, Kenichi, who had escaped from a Japanese internment camp they had been sent to by the federal government. To the local sheriff, the situation is open and shut. But to the lone FBI agent assigned to the case, the details don't add up.
Thus begins an investigation into what really happened to cause the plane crash, who was in the plane when it fell from the sky, and why no one involved seems willing to tell the truth. By turns an absorbing mystery and a fascinating exploration of race, family and loyalty, Eagle and Crane is that rare novel that tells a gripping story as it explores a terrible era of American history. (less)
Louis Thorn and Haruto "Harry" Yamada -- Eagle and Crane -- are the star attractions of Earl Shaw's Flying Circus, a daredevil (and not exactly legal) flying act that traverses Depression-era California. The young men have a complicated relationship, thanks to the Thorn family's belief that the Yamadas -- Japanese immigrants -- stole land that should have stayed in the Thorn family.
When Louis and Harry become aerial stuntmen, performing death-defying tricks high above audiences, they're both drawn to Shaw's smart and appealing stepdaughter, Ava Brooks. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and one of Shaw's planes mysteriously crashes and two charred bodies are discovered in it, authorities conclude that the victims were Harry and his father, Kenichi, who had escaped from a Japanese internment camp they had been sent to by the federal government. To the local sheriff, the situation is open and shut. But to the lone FBI agent assigned to the case, the details don't add up.
Thus begins an investigation into what really happened to cause the plane crash, who was in the plane when it fell from the sky, and why no one involved seems willing to tell the truth. By turns an absorbing mystery and a fascinating exploration of race, family and loyalty, Eagle and Crane is that rare novel that tells a gripping story as it explores a terrible era of American history. (less)
