JAMES MAXTED

James 'Max' Maxted is an aviation entrepreneur.

The year is 1919. The Treaty of Versaille is in the process of being agreed upon, drafted, and then signed. Europe is finally at the end of four horrific years of combat and it is time for everying to resume 'normal' lives.

For young Maxted, that means finding a career outside the Royal Flying Corps, a place where he had made a name for himself with a good deal of superior flying and not a little luck as an aviator during the War. The love of flying that he had had years before the conflict began took him easily into the Corps where his experience in the nascent field of aviation and his quick reflexes and keen eye made him a natural to take on the German version of the Corps. He would find that new line of work in the surplus of planes no longer needed for combat and available for purchase and resell to those seeing other uses for the items.

But that endeavor would be put on hold when his diplomat father dies under very mysterious conditions in Paris and Maxted is unwilling to accept the official findings. That in turn will lead him to get involved with his own government's intelligence agencies as well as those of Germany and even Japan.

It is important to remember that this is just after the days of World War I, not II, and the connections between these two nations is totally different than it would be two decades later. Both places, though, are highly dangerous ones for someone with the tenacity and inquisitiveness of Maxted. And as Maxted will be able to testify, dead is dead no matter who is doing the deed.

Amazing lines:

"His path to this moment was drenched in the blood of the deserving and the undeserving alike."

I said when I first listed this series, "I am super stoked for this series" and having read the books, my enthusiasm for them did not diminish. I am not big into flying but the author nailed me right away with the enthusiasm the main character showed for the future prospects in aviation and knowing how things would change made it all more interesting. What was particularly interesting was that flying was still a pretty new activity and the novelty is richly protrayed in these pages.

Then I commented on the fact that "the man doing the writing is an Edgar-award winning author who has a fantastic grasp of his trade and plies it brilliantly". That also never wavers throughout the trilogy.

And it is a trilogy. While each book has its own 'purpose' the total concept is fulfilled through the union of the three. You could read them out of order but I strongly recommend not. But do read them. The word flow like a good brandy going down.