Not They Who Soar (Katharine Wright #2)

Flower’s dazzling second mystery featuring Wilbur and Orville Wright’s sister, Katharine (after To Slip the Bonds of the Earth), is even better than the first. In 1904, Katharine travels from Ohio to St. Louis to attend the World’s Fair with her best friend, Margaret Meacham. Though the expo features an aeronautical competition, Katharine’s brothers have stayed home, convinced they can’t compete with the lineup of hot air balloons. Shortly after Katharine arrives at the St. Louis train station, a breathless young woman fleeing a group of men asks for her help, then dashes away. Katharine pushes the encounter from her mind—until she finds the young woman dying near a Brazilian pilot’s sabotaged balloon. The stranger’s final words, ­“aeronautic competition,”­ move Katharine and Margaret to dig into the fair’s seedy underbelly. Flower plays scrupulously fair with readers, and she continues to mold Katharine into a top-shelf gumshoe without stretching credibility or straying too far from the historical record. This series deserves a long run. Agent: Nicole Rescinti, Seymour Agency. (May)