1926 – The Bronx – New York, a much-loved priest brutally murdered, a vagrant arrested, and struggling lawyer Mark Kingsley roped in to his defence. Except the accused turns out to be his old best friend and fellow-flyer from WW1 days in the LFC, but who higher authority now seem strangely intent on framing for the crime.
Embarking on his own quest for the truth, Kingsley finds not only romance and constant recollection of those wartime years, but also the mounting realization that they hold dark secrets and a connection to one of America’s first and most enduring aviation mysteries.
The “LFC” were the Lafayette Flying Corps, a bunch of young Americans who, from the first days of WW1, threw in their lot with allies and flew as fighter pilots with the French. (Why the French, is explained in the story). With over 200 of them volunteering, by the end of the war, about a third had paid the ultimate price for their endeavour.
Chris said “This is a story I felt I had to write, having started my own 42 years of flying in open-cockpit biplanes, flown helicopters overseas with another American expat outfit, and listened to the many tales of my own father, who was one of the last survivors of WW1”.