Air in the Heart, Hearts in the Air

Over the years, I've read lots of historical fiction by Beatriz Williams.  Yet I can't recall a single novel that reimagined a real-life icon.  So when I picked up Her Last Flight, I knew I was in for an, ahem, departure.  Because as its weighty title suggests, this book explores the age-old question: What really happened to Amelia Earhart?

And you thought I was kidding when I made that crack about an Earhart girls trip.  

In some ways, the premise is simple.  Because although a lot of things happen in this book, they're all rooted in this: Just Amelia, or as she's called, Irene, and her mentor Sam on a desert island.  Nothing to do and nowhere to go, the seconds ticking away on the time bomb of when-will-they-do-it?  It's an old trope, lending characters' fantasies a license they wouldn't otherwise have.  Not that it's salacious.  Oh, no.  Williams is nothing if not classy, shrouding the rendezvous in so much secrecy that you'll wonder if it even happened.  

Told in two timelines, Her Last Flight spans the late '20s to '40s to laud and deconstruct a legend.  Sparkling with Williams' signature twists, it's an old-fashioned love story, one imperiled by fate and fame.  Romantic and suspenseful, it has all the elements of good historical fiction.  Still, I can't help but prefer Williams' other novels, especially the Schuyler sisters series (although now that I think about it, Tiny Little Thing may be a tiny nod to Jackie O.).  Maybe because they allow Williams to color more boldly outside the lines.  Or maybe because I'm not big on being a passenger in an airplane, much less the pilot.  Either way, Her Last Flight is less of a girls' trip and more of a brunch.  You know.  Perfectly enjoyable, but you're a little too full after forcing that third croissant.  

I do still wonder what happened to Amelia, though.  Because I'm with Williams in her hope that the clouds she flew through at least had a silver lining.