Eagle & Crane takes place during the Great Depression, pre-World War II, and more importantly during the Japanese Internment Camps. The story begins when a plane is found with two men dead inside and the only suspect is Louis, who used the plane to wingwalk back in the late 1930’s. We then follow Earl Shaw’s Flying Circus with Louis Thorn and Haruto “Harry” Yamada as the star wing walkers with the story going back and forth between the past and present, along with some backstory on the land that the Thorn’s and Yamada’s share.
Not only is this historical fiction, this is also a murder mystery (insert spooky music here). The book goes back and forth between the circus life and the investigation, which is about Harry’s father and another body being found inside one of the planes that the circus had used. While in the past, you follow the boys and Earl Shaw’s step daughter, Ava. So naturally, there is a love triangle is in this story, but it was a good love triangle.
The writing and the pace of the story made my history major heart happy because of its accuracy. You have to keep in mind that this was taking place during the Great Depression, which took up the majority of the 1930’s. Towards the end of the book, you have Louis’s brother enlisting into the army for World War II and Harry and his family going one of the many internment camps. The pacing of the book made sense and explained itself when it needed to in the next chapter.
What made me lower my rating was Louis in the end. I will not go into details as it will spoil it, but Harry and Ava become a thing over the course of the book, and it makes sense. Louis did not really connect with Ava and was a jerk towards the end of the book because he wanted everything to go his way. He did not see the problem from other people’s points of view, mainly Harry’s since he was Japanese.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something that is not just historical fiction but is also a murder mystery. The plot twists will get you, and yes there are many!
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Two young daredevil flyers confront ugly truths and family secrets during the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II, from the author of The Other Typist and Three-Martini Lunch.
Louis Thorn and Haruto “Harry” Yamada — Eagle and Crane — are the star attractions of Earl Shaw’s Flying Circus, a daredevil (and not exactly legal) flying act that traverses Depression-era California. The young men have a complicated relationship, thanks to the Thorn family’s belief that the Yamadas — Japanese immigrants — stole land that should have stayed in the Thorn family.
When Louis and Harry become aerial stuntmen, performing death-defying tricks high above audiences, they’re both drawn to Shaw’s smart and appealing stepdaughter, Ava Brooks. When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and one of Shaw’s planes mysteriously crashes and two charred bodies are discovered in it, authorities conclude that the victims were Harry and his father, Kenichi, who had escaped from a Japanese internment camp they had been sent to by the federal government. To the local sheriff, the situation is open and shut. But to the lone FBI agent assigned to the case, the details don’t add up.
Thus begins an investigation into what really happened to cause the plane crash, who was in the plane when it fell from the sky, and why no one involved seems willing to tell the truth. By turns an absorbing mystery and a fascinating exploration of race, family and loyalty, Eagle and Crane is that rare novel that tells a gripping story as it explores a terrible era of American history.
