No Ordinary Bird: Drug Smuggling, a Plane Crash, and a Daughter’s Quest for the Truth

Journalist and memoirist Henderson (Unremarried Widow) delivers a heart-rending account of her father’s death in an airplane crash. In June 1985, five-year-old Henderson was a passenger in Lamar’s single-engine plane, which took off near their family’s Georgia farm for a short joyride. As they neared home, the aircraft crashed, killing Lamar instantly and leaving Henderson with life-threatening injuries. She recovered from what she was told was an accident but came to learn, decades later, that foul play was suspected. In 1975, Lamar began using his plane to smuggle marijuana into the U.S. By 1979, he had purchased five islands in the Bahamas to help him safely refuel his planes and began importing over 10 tons of cannabis each year. Henderson’s digging—which revealed her father’s possible entanglement with the Iran-Contra affair and new details about his impending court appearance on federal charges just before his death—led her to conclude that Lamar was likely murdered by one of several parties seeking to keep him quiet. Henderson marries her solid journalistic chops with diaristic emotional immediacy, infusing a stranger-than-fiction crime story with deeply personal stakes. It’s a unique, exciting, and affecting memoir. Agent: Anna Stein, CAA. (Sept.)