Ghostflight

by William Katz

Exciting and intriguing story told in a personal and thrilling way.

Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Muzzlehatch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers ahead: Amelia Earhart never died, but was captured by Nazis and given an experimental longevity serum later given to Hitler...40 years later, she returns to the past to save the world for the Third Reich rising again. This is a fast-paced, wholly silly mixture of genres (Nazi/SF/romance) that read to me like a mash-up between Clive Cussler and Dean Koontz, with a sprinkling of Richard Matheson's "Bid Time Return." It keeps moving, but the characters are cardboard and the resolution unconvincing and unmoving.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it only cost a dollar at the thrift store so I picked it up. I was expecting some sort of time-traveling insanity as Amelia Earhart and Adolf Hitler are involved but what I got instead was a spy thriller featuring Adolf as the big bad but not the antagonist, that title is reserved for some other character trying to pull off the plans to get him back into power, with Earhart in tow of the protagonist. I have to say that I was interested up until about the second third of the book, the story was moving just fine but when the protagonist loses his position due to a foil and a feckless president (boy howdy does that characterization stand up), the book started to bog down. However, the Nazis actually became the part of the story I wanted to read after that, especially as the author seemed to tease a possible romance between the protagonist and Earhart (blech!) their part of the story became almost insufferable. Fortunately, that did not happen.

The countdown the author kept of the pending Nazi coup date that could also set off World War III with U.N. forces actually protecting them kept a little suspense going. The last third of the book came to a nice crescendo with the Nazis failing utterly. You do feel somewhat sorry for them then realize who they were (and as characterized by the book) and think 'Good'.

I really can't recommend this book because it was just a typical political/espionage thriller with Hitler and Amelia Earhart thrown in via a Nazi fountain of youth treatment. Although, the term "fountain of youth" did not appear once in the novel. I'm not mad I read it, it was okay for what it turned out to be then again I tend to avoid this genre as I have absolutely no real interest in it.