Get your tissues and settle in because Her Last Flight will take you on a trip back through time that is both beautiful and raw, as well as both heart-tugging and heart-breaking. Beatriz Williams has crafted a novel that tells an incredible story but also has fantastically strong, complicated, relatable, and beautifully written characters.
This story is told by two women, one in the 1920’s and one in the 1940’s, but these two vibrant female characters could walk right out of the pages and be remarkable women of today. I’m not sure it is possible to read this novel and not connect with these characters.
In the late 1940’s, Janey Everett is a war correspondent and photographer in search of a woman named Irene Lindquist, who Janey believes is actually Irene Foster, the legendary pilot who flew with Sam Mallory, a true pioneer in the field of aviation. Janey is doing research for a planned biography of Sam Mallory whose fate is unknown to the public as he never returned home after volunteering in the Spanish Civil War. She believes that Irene Foster is the person who can fill in the gaps in her research and help her understand just who Sam Mallory was. The public also is unaware of Irene Foster’s ultimate fate as she never returned from her around the world flight in 1937. Her disappearance has remained a great mystery.
But in 1947, in a small surfing village on Hawaii’s Kauai island, Janey believes she has found Irene at last. Mrs. Lindquist at first denies having anything to do with Mallory and tries to convince Janey that she has the wrong person. However, when Janey mentions that the wreck of Mallory’s plane has recently been discovered in Spain, all pretense falls away and Lindquist/Foster begins to dole out the pieces of her life the public never knew.
As she tells Janey all about how she met Mallory, why she ever started to fly in the first place, how complicated yet tender their relationship was, and how her ex-husband and well known publishing magnate George Morrow became involved with the duo, Irene slowly begins to trust Janey, and these two strong, independent women build a tenuous bridge of trust that is constantly tested. Irene has not talked about her past or given out the details of her unbelievable life to anyone, and that’s part of the reason she has remained incognito and stayed under the radar, as she wishes to.
As Irene continues to tell her story, Janey’s own past begins to come up, and the women both face a desperate need to know things they are not sure they want to know. The story twists in ways that are surprising and gratifying. There are tears from the characters as they come to certain realisations, but there will certainly be tears from the reader as well (speaking from personal experience). You will know these women, and you may even realise you are these women. Williams’s beautiful writing absolutely makes them women you can feel in your soul.
The story is incredible and wonderfully told, but the outstanding work that went into character development is the shining star here. Highly recommended for any fan of historical fiction, but especially fans of Williams’ previous work and books such as All The Ways We Said Goodbye that she has written with Karen White and Lauren Willig.
Her Last Flight is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The beloved author returns with a remarkable novel of both raw suspense and lyric beauty— the story of a lost pilot and a wartime photographer that will leave its mark on your soul.
In 1947, photographer and war correspondent Janey Everett arrives at a remote surfing village on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to research a planned biography of forgotten aviation pioneer Sam Mallory, who joined the loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War and never returned. Obsessed with Sam’s fate, Janey has tracked down Irene Lindquist, the owner of a local island-hopping airline, whom she believes might actually be the legendary Irene Foster, Mallory’s onetime student and flying partner. Foster’s disappearance during a round-the-world flight in 1937 remains one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
At first, the flinty Mrs. Lindquist denies any connection to Foster. But Janey informs her that the wreck of Sam Mallory’s airplane has recently been discovered in a Spanish desert, and piece by piece, the details of Foster’s extraordinary life emerge: from the beginnings of her flying career in Southern California, to her complicated, passionate relationship with Mallory, to the collapse of her marriage to her aggressive career manager, the publishing scion George Morrow.
As Irene spins her tale to its searing conclusion, Janey’s past gathers its own power. The duel between the two women takes a heartstopping turn. To whom does Mallory rightfully belong? Can we ever come to terms with the loss of those we love, and the lives we might have lived?
