Flyaway

A really enjoyable piece of old fashioned storytelling. No gimmicks, just a decent tale packed with adventure, intrigue and believable characters. It grips from the first chapter, and Bagley weaves a beguiling mystery in with the Saharan derring-do. His writing is for the most part pleasingly lean and adept, miles away from the descriptive bloat that plagues so many modern thrillers. Thoroughly recommended.

29 years after his father disappears on an airplane race to Capetown, Peter Bilson disappears from his job and life in London. Our narrator, head of a security firm, finds several mysteries in his life and disappearance and heads to Algeria in search of him. Bailey apparently knows Africa quite well, as he puts really puts you into the place, with memorable characters and locations. Bailey also orchestrates the mystery well, and the ending is very satisfying. Enjoyed sitting on the beach and reading this one.

Flyaway is a pedestrian thriller which tells the tale of the 1978 hunt for an airplane presumed lost during the 1936 London to Cape Town Air Race. Most of the story is set in and around the Sahara Desert as protagonist security chief Max Stafford searches for the obsessed son of the pilot and the plane. Max is aided by Lucas Byrne, an ex-pat American who has lived in the area for the last thirty-five years, after deserting during the war. I found the twists predictable, although that is not necessarily a fair conclusion. I read the book many years ago, but remembered nothing of it when I re-read it for the "Go Review That Book!" game. That it's so forgettable is telling. Save for the interesting descriptions of the desert and the show more Tuareg, one of the nomadic tribes of the region, there's not much to recommend it.

One of the main problems for me was the character of Max Stafford. He seemed to serve so little purpose to the actual story except to be the means by which everything is put together at the end. The other issue I had with the book is one that stuns me.

I am notoriously non-PC. I don't want every story to be served up with the "right" attitude to sensitive issues. I certainly dislike the trend of books being judged out of their time and context, leading to claims that great works of their day are devalued because of attitudes that don't pass modern muster. So colour me shocked that I found this book irritatingly colonial. It was written in 1978, but it smacks of the fifties. Even the introduction of Bryne, the best character in the book, is disappointing in its reliance on having a white, and thus in some way more credible, guide. I rarely find offence in such things, but even I was affected by stuff like this:

To a character bruised from having been beaten: "Better not go out into the streets just yet. Someone from the Race Relations Board might get you for trying to cross the colour line."

With reference to the main post office in Algiers, as if Arabic architecture didn't have its own long and proud history: "...an Eastern attempt to emulate the reverential and cathedral-like atmosphere affected by the major British banks."

On his attempts to speak German: "No foreigner minds you speaking his language badly providing you make the attempt. Excepting the French, of course."

On reflection, that last one makes me laugh. show less

Lekker leesbaar boek. Mooi plot.

NIL

De verdwijning van Paul Billson, werkzaam in een technisch bedrijf, lijkt aanvankelijk van weinig belang voor Max Stafford, hoofd van het bedrijf dat verantwoordelijk is voor de bewaking en veiligheid. Er schijnen persoonlijke redenen in het spel te zijn.

Totdat een routineonderzoek ertoe leidt dat Stafford in elkaar wordt geslagen. Dan moet hij te weten komen wie en wat erachter steekt. En zo besluit hij zelf op zoek te gaan naar Billson.

Paul Billson is in een vlaag van woede vertrokken naar de Sahara, waar zijn vader tijdens de vliegrace van Londen naar Kaapstad in 1936 was neergestort. In een recent krantenartikel werd gesuggereerd dat zijn vader de verzekering had opgelicht en het ongeluk had overleefd, en zijn impulsieve zoon is show more vast van plan het wrak van het vliegtuigje te vinden om zijn vaders naam van alle blaam te zuiveren.

Maar iemand wil niet dat hij het vliegtuig vindt. Welk geheim herbergt het veertig jaar oude wrak?

Voor Stafford, geholpen door een raadselachtige Amerikaan die van de woestijn zijn thuis had gemaakt, wordt het een race tegen de klok om Paul Billson nog op tijd te bereiken, een race op leven en dood... show less

Ein atemberaubender Thriller! Vierzig Jahre sind vergangen, seit Paul Billsons Vater von einem Wettflug über die Sahara nicht mehr zurückgekehrt ist. Doch als Paul sich auf die Suche nach dem Flugzeugwrack machen will, versucht jemand ihn mit allen Mitteln daran zu hindern. Schließlich beauftragt Paul einen Detektiv das Geheimnis zu lüften, das in der stummen Wüste schlummert .