Not They Who Soar
Katharine Wright #2
Amanda Flower
ISBN: 9781496747686
amandaflower.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
The equally brilliant real-life sister of the famous flying Wright Brothers, Katharine Wright, investigates an unsettling death at the 1904 World’s Fair in this radiant new historical mystery from USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower.
Summer 1904. Katharine and her best friend from Oberlin College, Margaret Goodwin Meacham, are thrilled to attend the St. Louis Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, for the centennial celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Not only is it a grand, international event, it’s also the first time the young women have traveled together alone, and they are giddy with excitement—despite warnings from Katharine’s old family friend, poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, to be careful of the fair’s less seemly side.
Undaunted, the girls have a lovely time—until the exposition turns from a girls’ trip to a misadventure when they stumble upon a woman in distress. It’s obvious that she has been attacked. Katharine and Margaret do their best to save her, but tragically, before help can arrive, the woman dies. Yet just before her last breath, she utters the words Aeronautics Competition . . . Katharine’s brothers, Wilbur, and Orville were asked to enter the competition with their successful 1903 flyer but declined. Katharine, of course, knows they would have won and has confidently said so to anyone who will listen.
Now, unable to get the woman’s face out of her mind, Katharine can’t help wondering whether her death could somehow be connected to her brothers’ flying machine. Katharine convinces Margaret to join her investigation—and it’s soon clear that someone will stop at nothing to get the Wrights’ invention to the masses. But with Katherine on the case, they may be in for a hard fall . . . (From Goodreads)
Review:
Reading this new, fast-paced mystery in Amanda Flower’s Katharine Wright series has been a perfect experience! Readers get to attend the 1904 World’s Fair/ St. Louis Exposition in St. Louis, appreciating it through the eyes of Katharine, her best friend Margaret, and the perspective of a young woman who was designing her own flying machine.
Margaret’s husband, Meacham, worked at a bank in Chicago. He was primarily there to attain substantial new accounts from successful industries related to the exciting innovations seen at the fair. He would work long hours, so he suggested that Margaret invite her best friend, Katharine, to enjoy the fair together.
I was impressed that many ‘real’ people were part of the novel! Paul Laurence Dunbar was an extraordinary man to ‘meet’, especially after reading the poem from which the book title was borrowed. His poetry exemplified the hidden heart of that era. All the characters are defined well, seen through Katharine’s compassionate view. It was a joy for Katharine to attend the fair. Her primary focus through the school year was her students. Year round, she ran the household for her father and her brothers, Wilbur and Orville. She also works at the brothers’ bicycle shop, and is their most enthusiastic supporter. For her, this trip has been a rare extravagance.
When leaving the train in St. Louis, she attempted to help a young woman who called for help while being chased, but she got away. That evening, Margaret, Meacham, and Katherine attended a reception at the Palace of Fine Arts where she met inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont. He told her about when he met and talked with her brothers, and how flying machines like his, using hot air balloons, were the future, not those like her brothers’ prototype. He invited her to his hangar the next morning to see his flying machine. He was confident he would win the aeronautics competition with a grand prize of $100,000. She wished her brothers had competed, but they had excellent reasons to wait.
Katharine and Margaret arrived at Santos-Dumont’s hangar the next morning. Unfortunately, someone had slashed the balloon silks of his machine beyond repair. Furious, he was going to return to Paris. There, the craftsmen he had painstakingly trained would replace everything damaged. It was impossible to complete the work in time for the competition.
While Santos-Dumont went to call the police, the woman from the train station popped her head in. She recognized Katharine, and ran. Within moments Katharine found her, bleeding to death between two hangars, and held the young woman as she passed. Katharine was determined to get justice for Camilla Ortiz. Camilla had been working on her own flying machine in California, and came to St. Louis when she heard of jobs and the aeronautics competition. She hoped to get advice on her machine and possibly even a financial backer. She got a job as mechanic, but as a woman was limited to non-mechanical tasks.
Since Camilla was a fair employee, the police gave little attention to her murder, but the damaged balloon of a wealthy inventor rated full investigation. Katharine used the best of her skills, despite the difficulty of learning anything about Camilla’s death.
I did correctly anticipate an interesting twist, but I couldn’t solve anything! Katharine encountered many bold lies about Camilla, including how she might have damaged Santos-Dumont’s balloon. Katharine pursued the murder as she and Margaret saw some of the fair. She also helped Margaret prepare for her exceptional dinner party, and stayed with Margaret when she was laid up with a tummy bug.
The real killer stunned and disappointed me, someone I thought to be above reproach. All
loose ends were tied up, and the ending was satisfying. I greatly appreciate the author, the depth of her historical research, her humor, and her development of characters that I want to know more about beyond the final page. I highly recommend this excellent novel!
