FLYING DARK

In Sargent’s metaphysical thriller, a probate investigator and Charles Lindbergh scholar encounters a mysterious woman who may be Lindbergh’s rightful heir.

In 1932, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh and his novelist wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh was kidnapped from their New Jersey estate and later found murdered nearby. Although a suspect was arrested, convicted, and executed, many questions remained unanswered regarding Lindbergh—the first pilot to fly solo from New York to Paris—and his shadowy past, which could include numerous offspring from wayward trysts. Half a century later, former Navy pilot and current special investigator Hunter Dauger makes a living out of exposing fraudsters, specifically people claiming to be related to wealthy and/or famous individuals for financial benefit. When Dauger begins questioning a mysterious and strangely hypnotic woman named Pia (“She was urban, dangerous, sophisticated, and girlish all at once”), who could be Lindbergh’s illegitimate daughter, he becomes increasingly entangled in Lindbergh’s obsession with eugenics and (perceived) connections to Nazism and antisemitism—as well as his own desperate search for identity, which is deeply rooted in his lack of knowledge regarding his own father. The sheer uniqueness of this novel is an undeniable strength, but its originality could be perceived as a barrier by readers looking for more conventional literary escapism. Loosely structured as a thriller, the narrative incorporates elements of historical and speculative fiction with a supernatural undertone, but ultimately, it’s a surprisingly intimate chronicle of one man’s journey of self-discovery. The sequences at the novel’s end when Dauger, on a marathon flight, flies into his own inner Spirit Cave (“the maw, the hearth of the dead”) are both terrifying and enlightening. Also noteworthy is the author’s subtle use of humor throughout (“You Parisians give me the crepes”).

Highly recommended for historical fiction fans who like their literary fare decidedly dark.