ONCE MORE THE HAWKS
By
More slapdash, episodic aviation-experiences for Dicken Quinney of the RAF--as Hennessy brings this thin action/soap trilogy (The Bright Blue Sky, The Challenging Heights) to a close. It's now the late 1930s--and hero/veteran Dicken, on the verge of retirement, is flying a few intelligence missions over Germany. Soon, however, comes WW II, propelling the aging super-pilot through a series of quick, sketchy assignments. After some boring communications jobs, he's sent to RAF headquarters in France--helping with evacuations. Next he commands a fighter-station at Thornside (with outstanding Polish aviators), has a brief affair with an American woman, and takes over a bombing/gunnery school. Then, after a mini-adventure in France (forced landing, capture, escape), Dicken is off to Greece--again overseeing perilous evacuation. Back home again, he flies more missions over Europe--advising the RAF on technical problems, joining in the ""great raid"" on Cologne. (Among the casualties: Diplock, Jr., the nice son of nasty, cowardly ak-minister Diplock, Sr., Dicken's lifelong nemesis.) And finally Churchill sends Dicken to China ""to find out just what's going on"": he helps to rescue babies, does a daringly improvised divebomb on a strategic bridge. . . and meets up again, of course, with star-crossed love Marie-Gabrielle. Even less textured than the previous volumes: a patchy, if undeniably varied, WW II-aviation potpourri--only for RAF addicts and intrepid followers of Hennessy's weakest series by far.