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The Wrong Side of the Sky
A novel of tremendous pace and excitement, set in, and above, the Middle East, and involving two pilots, their careers clouded by a secret past, who fly back to the right side of the sky on a strange and sinister course that winds from Greece to Lybia and includes a rich Nawab, a beautiful girl, diamonds, smuggled arms - and sudden death.
311 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1961
168 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Gavin Lyall
66 books31 followersGavin was born and educated in Birmingham. For two years he served as a RAF pilot before going up to Cambridge, where he edited Varsity, the university newspaper. After working for Picture Post, the Sunday Graphic and the BBC, he began his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky, published in 1961. After four years as Air Correspondent to the Sunday Times, he resigned to write books full time. He was married to the well-known journalist Katherine Whitehorn and they lived in London with their children.
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).
All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.
In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.
Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).
All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.
In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.
Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
September 23, 2022
Lyall's THE WRONG SIDE OF THE SKY, is an astonishingly good first novel. An adventure thriller with exotic locations -- Greece, Libya -- exciting aircraft flying scenes, and surprising and precise plotting make it entertaining. It owes as much to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler (the mystery, the dialogue, and the masculine meaning) as it does to John Buchan. A winner that is as appealing today as it was sixty years ago when it first appeared.
January 6, 2025
Philip Marlowe meets Indiana Jones meets Clutch Cargo in this pleasant surprise from Gavin Lyall, who I'd never heard of before seeing him mentioned in the equally delightful Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed.
Hard drinking cargo pilots,* femme fatales, ex-Nazi henchmen and a displaced "Nawab of Tungabhadra" (a real title and a real place; but not sure if a real thing in combination) battle their way from Greece to Libya and back again over a fortune in missing jewels, with all the Lugers, Berettas and Walther P38s (the basis of the classic "Man from U.N.C.L.E." gun) you could ever want…what's not to love?
* Including our hero Jack Clay, one of the first in a long line of badass "Jacks," including Reacher, Ryan, Bauer, Carter and — my personal favorite — Burton.
____________________________________________
(This is the second of a half dozen used/cheap "read and toss" books brought on my current trip back to Taipei)
Hard drinking cargo pilots,* femme fatales, ex-Nazi henchmen and a displaced "Nawab of Tungabhadra" (a real title and a real place; but not sure if a real thing in combination) battle their way from Greece to Libya and back again over a fortune in missing jewels, with all the Lugers, Berettas and Walther P38s (the basis of the classic "Man from U.N.C.L.E." gun) you could ever want…what's not to love?
* Including our hero Jack Clay, one of the first in a long line of badass "Jacks," including Reacher, Ryan, Bauer, Carter and — my personal favorite — Burton.
____________________________________________
(This is the second of a half dozen used/cheap "read and toss" books brought on my current trip back to Taipei)
February 17, 2013
This is one of my favourite thrillers and I have just finished reading it again. In the book one of the characters says to the pilot after a particularly skilful landing, "I'd forgotton about you. You do forget about people". Well, I had forgotten just how terrific a writer Gavin Lyall was. He had done National Service as a pilot in the RAF and it shows in his knowledgeable writing. The tough characters, exotic locations (Greece and Lybia), technical flying details, and top-class writing make for a great read. This was Lyall's first novel and, in my opinion, his best by far.
March 4, 2014
I enjoyed this book. I like the writing style. The writing is crisp, lots of twists. Jack Clay is a pilot for a carrier firm that hauls passengers and freight.Hhe is at the airport in Athens with his co-pilot Rogers, a young pilot with not enough experience as far as Jack is concerned. He is working on his plane because water got in the fuel at a Turkish airport. While he is working he sees a plane come in and knows from the landing, exceptionally good, that it's an old buddy of his. He and Ken Kitson have a past hauling people and planes during the partition of Pakistan - which has caused them to give up their citizenship and get pilot's licenses in other countries. It's a bit of a mystery at first. Clay checks with their shipping agent in Athens and gets a cargo he doesn't want. He refuses to take it. Then, later he changes his mind. There is something going on that Kitson knows about on some jewels stolen from a Nawab in Pakistan about ten years ago. Some of the jewelry has turned up and the Nawab and his bodyguard have traced the source to Athens.
Captain Clay takes his oil rig parts to the villae he's supposed to, but is suspicious about his cargo. On the way, he stops to take on fuel and dumps his co-pilot and the man riding with the cargo. He opens the cargo and discovers jewelry in one of the crates with rusted out rifles. So, he makes his own arrangements - and nearly gets killed pulling it off. His pal, Kitson has taken off in his boss' plane and likely crashed it just off a small island - all they can find is some wreckage. But a resident mentions another plane that crash-landed on a small island close by many years ago. Clay looks over the place where the plane is, with the trees grown up around it. He decides there is something special about this plane crash. He begins to connect it with the theft of the jewels as does the Nawab although everyone says the pilot left the island when he was able to after the crash.
The Nawab wants the rest of his treasure that was stolen back (even though it's just a fraction of his wealth, a million and a half pounds worth - English money); he doesn't like to lose things. He is reluctant to pay a reward. Clay has his suspicions of a lot of things and begins thinking real hard, but not saying anything to anyone.
There are a lot more complications than this - but I do like the style of the writer. I was not expecting this and was very pleased to have discovered this writer.
Captain Clay takes his oil rig parts to the villae he's supposed to, but is suspicious about his cargo. On the way, he stops to take on fuel and dumps his co-pilot and the man riding with the cargo. He opens the cargo and discovers jewelry in one of the crates with rusted out rifles. So, he makes his own arrangements - and nearly gets killed pulling it off. His pal, Kitson has taken off in his boss' plane and likely crashed it just off a small island - all they can find is some wreckage. But a resident mentions another plane that crash-landed on a small island close by many years ago. Clay looks over the place where the plane is, with the trees grown up around it. He decides there is something special about this plane crash. He begins to connect it with the theft of the jewels as does the Nawab although everyone says the pilot left the island when he was able to after the crash.
The Nawab wants the rest of his treasure that was stolen back (even though it's just a fraction of his wealth, a million and a half pounds worth - English money); he doesn't like to lose things. He is reluctant to pay a reward. Clay has his suspicions of a lot of things and begins thinking real hard, but not saying anything to anyone.
There are a lot more complications than this - but I do like the style of the writer. I was not expecting this and was very pleased to have discovered this writer.
February 22, 2018
Former RAF pilot, Gavin Lyall’s first novel is a thriller focussing on jobbing pilot (write what you know), the morally ambiguous Jack Clay, who plies his trade around the Mediterranean flying a clapped out 17 year old Dakota, the airborne equivalent of a tramp steamer. He’s world weary and seems to have lost the ambition to better himself and fly for one of the big airlines. Running into an old but more successful friend and colleague in an Athens hotel bar Jack takes an opportunity to ferry a dubious cargo into the Libyan desert where things start to go wrong very quickly. Cue lots of hard drinking, shooting and resisting the advances of beautiful women.
There’s a good deal of technical flying and navigation writing here and it’s very good - the tension is ratcheted up nicely and there are several unexpected twists and no punches are pulled where sudden violent death is concerned.
There’s a good deal of technical flying and navigation writing here and it’s very good - the tension is ratcheted up nicely and there are several unexpected twists and no punches are pulled where sudden violent death is concerned.
January 5, 2021
My favourite of all Gavin Lyall's books - and the first one I read, many decades ago.
The protagonist, Jack Clay, flies a battered DC3 around the Mediterranean sea for a small cargo charter company. The other, Ken Kitson, is a wartime friend now the personal pilot for the Nawab of Tungabhadra, in Pakisitan. The story revolves around an ammunition box of jewelry that went missing during the partition of India in 1947 and the two pilot's attempts to find it for themselves.
The flying sequences are very real (Lyall was a pilot) and yet approachable to the non-aviation enthusiast. The plot builds well, with a nice twist at the end, and the characterisations are real, if possibly a bit dated (the book was first published in 1961).
Well worth a read!
The protagonist, Jack Clay, flies a battered DC3 around the Mediterranean sea for a small cargo charter company. The other, Ken Kitson, is a wartime friend now the personal pilot for the Nawab of Tungabhadra, in Pakisitan. The story revolves around an ammunition box of jewelry that went missing during the partition of India in 1947 and the two pilot's attempts to find it for themselves.
The flying sequences are very real (Lyall was a pilot) and yet approachable to the non-aviation enthusiast. The plot builds well, with a nice twist at the end, and the characterisations are real, if possibly a bit dated (the book was first published in 1961).
Well worth a read!
May 1, 2020
Thrills par excellence
A fast paced post WW2 gun running thriller centered around hairy escapades flying a clapped out DC3 across the Med. Great aeronautical input and sardonic ex RAF hero
A fast paced post WW2 gun running thriller centered around hairy escapades flying a clapped out DC3 across the Med. Great aeronautical input and sardonic ex RAF hero
February 23, 2024
So, yeah, this is very much a major rewrite of "The Maltese Falcon" and any number of similar stories, down to the protagonist who knows far more than he lets us see, and who has to juggle a growing number of sharp objects to come out of the game alive. With a lot of nice piloting bits thrown in, because it's the early 1960s, boys and girls, and there's no GPS, for instance.
This is Lyall's first novel, and it shows somewhat that he had yet to grow into his skills, but still, a fine job of thriller writing. The man was incapable of delivering a poor book.
This is Lyall's first novel, and it shows somewhat that he had yet to grow into his skills, but still, a fine job of thriller writing. The man was incapable of delivering a poor book.
August 4, 2024
An excellent adventure novel that delves into the price and responsibilities of friendship. Delightfully seedy.
January 17, 2020
There is an inevitable betrayal at the end of the book, but it's not the one I was expecting it to be, which left an unexpected sense of grateful relief.
I was hooked by the level of aviation detail in the first Gavin Lyall novel I picked up, entirely by chance (I was astonished to discover later that he was married to the author of my invaluable "Cooking in a Bedsitter", and in fact was almost certainly responsible for the 'male' chapter in that!) This one is another novel about pilots and flying in which the abilities of an aircraft are intrinsic to the plot (the high-mounted 'pusher' propeller of the Nawab's personal luxury plane is mentioned casually as a distinctive feature at the start, then ends up contributing to the fate of several characters who aren't expecting this non-standard layout!)
It's a hardboiled thriller about greed and betrayal and the aftermath of war, with a lot of effective twists; the protagonist starts off by refusing to run guns on principle, then consciously takes on a dodgy cargo for reasons that we don't understand until later. It turns out to be even dodgier than we (though not he) expected. From a technical point of view, the book has a very skilful use of a first-person narrative that manages to conceal a great deal from the reader without being openly unreliable; it exists almost entirely in the present, without making the protagonist's backstory (which of course he takes for granted) or his future plans explicit until the time comes.
Jack Clay is a flawed hero; we want him to do the right thing, but we also want him to win, which sets up an effective tension. And the revelation of exactly what lies in his and Ken's past, when it comes, is unexpected and brutally simple.
Any thriller from my point of view, whether Dick Francis or Modesty Blaise, scores in its use of details, and Lyall's books have this in spades. From the finer points of radio direction finding (radio telephone versus wireless (Morse) transmissions) to the interior of a Libyan oasis, we feel that the author knows everything he is talking about. Nowadays, of course, the 'period' setting also has its interest!
I was hooked by the level of aviation detail in the first Gavin Lyall novel I picked up, entirely by chance (I was astonished to discover later that he was married to the author of my invaluable "Cooking in a Bedsitter", and in fact was almost certainly responsible for the 'male' chapter in that!) This one is another novel about pilots and flying in which the abilities of an aircraft are intrinsic to the plot (the high-mounted 'pusher' propeller of the Nawab's personal luxury plane is mentioned casually as a distinctive feature at the start, then ends up contributing to the fate of several characters who aren't expecting this non-standard layout!)
It's a hardboiled thriller about greed and betrayal and the aftermath of war, with a lot of effective twists; the protagonist starts off by refusing to run guns on principle, then consciously takes on a dodgy cargo for reasons that we don't understand until later. It turns out to be even dodgier than we (though not he) expected. From a technical point of view, the book has a very skilful use of a first-person narrative that manages to conceal a great deal from the reader without being openly unreliable; it exists almost entirely in the present, without making the protagonist's backstory (which of course he takes for granted) or his future plans explicit until the time comes.
Jack Clay is a flawed hero; we want him to do the right thing, but we also want him to win, which sets up an effective tension. And the revelation of exactly what lies in his and Ken's past, when it comes, is unexpected and brutally simple.
Any thriller from my point of view, whether Dick Francis or Modesty Blaise, scores in its use of details, and Lyall's books have this in spades. From the finer points of radio direction finding (radio telephone versus wireless (Morse) transmissions) to the interior of a Libyan oasis, we feel that the author knows everything he is talking about. Nowadays, of course, the 'period' setting also has its interest!
July 13, 2021
"Terrific: when better novels of suspense are written, lead me to them.” This is indeed high praise coming from an author like PG Woodhouse. Having read the book I think the praise is justified.
There is not a dull moment in this narattive and events flow seamlessly. Jack Clay is the sort of protaganist popular in fiction of 50s till maybe 90s. Tough Alpha males. Such characters were par for that era and should not be judged by modern standards.
What stands out about the book is its plot which has a few suspense elements revealed only in the latter part of the novel. The pace and interest never flags. Also Lyall is something of a stylist in his prose and some line will remind you of Chandler.
I enjoyed this book and finished it in 3 sittings. I look foward to read more of his works.
There is not a dull moment in this narattive and events flow seamlessly. Jack Clay is the sort of protaganist popular in fiction of 50s till maybe 90s. Tough Alpha males. Such characters were par for that era and should not be judged by modern standards.
What stands out about the book is its plot which has a few suspense elements revealed only in the latter part of the novel. The pace and interest never flags. Also Lyall is something of a stylist in his prose and some line will remind you of Chandler.
I enjoyed this book and finished it in 3 sittings. I look foward to read more of his works.
August 15, 2012
Another old favorite. Lyall served in the RAF, and several of his early thrillers involve aviation themes. This one's about a cargo pilot in the eastern Mediterranean in the early '60's, looking for a chance to score big with some jewels that went missing in India in the turbulence at partition. The action moves from Athens to Tripoli (Libya) and beyond. Classic adventure of a type they don't write any more
July 30, 2021
The Wrong Side of the Sky, is the author's debut novel from 1961. Lyall was very popular in the sixties and seventies despite not being the most prolific of writers.
This tale takes place in Athens, Saxos and Libya and concerns an airline pilot chasing a stolen hoard of jewels. Its fast, humourless and easily digested. Exactly what I'd expect from a Pan Books potboiler.
Very, very good for that kind of thing.
This tale takes place in Athens, Saxos and Libya and concerns an airline pilot chasing a stolen hoard of jewels. Its fast, humourless and easily digested. Exactly what I'd expect from a Pan Books potboiler.
Very, very good for that kind of thing.
May 1, 2023
brilliance
I have so far read 5 of Mr Lyall 's books and every one has left me eager to get the next book into my hands. I cannot think of any other books that tell a plot so deviant but fully credible. Brilliance all the way!
I have so far read 5 of Mr Lyall 's books and every one has left me eager to get the next book into my hands. I cannot think of any other books that tell a plot so deviant but fully credible. Brilliance all the way!
April 23, 2024
C-47s Workhorse
I like the tribute to the thousands of crew who flew the DC-3/C-47. The expertise of the flyers was great. The attitude of the flyers seemed to parallel the stories I have heard. CV
I like the tribute to the thousands of crew who flew the DC-3/C-47. The expertise of the flyers was great. The attitude of the flyers seemed to parallel the stories I have heard. CV
June 16, 2025
THE WRONG SIDE OF THE SKY is a wonderful thriller. as any reader who knows Gavin Lyall would expect.
In it, hard-working pilots, always down on their luck, learn that there is no way to get rich quick and keep their honor, sanity, and freedom.
In it, hard-working pilots, always down on their luck, learn that there is no way to get rich quick and keep their honor, sanity, and freedom.
April 17, 2023
Great page turner
August 17, 2024
Layers upon layers of deceit
The multiple layers of deceit with an unfazed and unassuming hero makes for an absorbing tale of treasure lost, found and lost yet again.
The multiple layers of deceit with an unfazed and unassuming hero makes for an absorbing tale of treasure lost, found and lost yet again.
June 20, 2025
Great plot ....twists and turns. The flying sequences are so real it takes me back to my back to my flying days and brings out the sweat
July 28, 2022
The wrong side of the sky
Excellent read and very enjoyable. I like this guys style of writing, almost in the style of the old American detective books of the 1950’s. Very 1950’s and all the more enjoyable for it. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Having said that of course it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it is what it is. I congratulate Gavin Lyall on a superb book well written. Thank you.
Excellent read and very enjoyable. I like this guys style of writing, almost in the style of the old American detective books of the 1950’s. Very 1950’s and all the more enjoyable for it. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Having said that of course it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but it is what it is. I congratulate Gavin Lyall on a superb book well written. Thank you.
May 2, 2010
Typical Gavin Lyall adventure/thriller.
January 4, 2024
Really reminded me of East of Desolation...guess what I'll be reading next?
May 10, 2016
An ex-RAF pilot gets caught in a global race to find missing jewels.
January 10, 2024
typical Gavin Lyall. Technical items correct and interesting story
January 6, 2023
Rather disappointing.
Not very exciting and not much action, basically a British B picture with a weak storyline from the fifties. Give it a miss.
Not very exciting and not much action, basically a British B picture with a weak storyline from the fifties. Give it a miss.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews