Technically precise, emotionally resonant, and compulsively readable.
Okolo delivers a chillingly plausible reimagining of aviation’s most famous mystery in his compelling novel. The book’s premise is simple but provocative: what if Amelia did not vanish into the Pacific but survived a forced landing on a remote island? Okolo builds from the established facts of July 2, 1937—the fraught takeoff at Lae, the breakdown in radio communication with the Itasca, the unnerving failure to locate Howland Island—and transforms them into an intimate, claustrophobic chronicle of endurance. The cockpit scenes are steeped in aviation detail, while the mechanics heighten the dread.
What ultimately grips is the stark human drama. Earhart comes across less as a public figure and more as a tired, frightened woman struggling to keep control. Noonan’s dry humor and seafaring pragmatism make him thoroughly humane. Together, they form a portrait of two people bound by desperation and fleeting hope. Depicted with precision, the island is at once a haven and a trap. The ending leaves readers not with answers, but with the heavy, haunting plausibility of what might have been. The result is a genuine page-turner.
Pub date August 24, 2025
Bitter Leaf Press
ISBN 979-8999984029
Price $12.99 (uSD) Paperback, $4.99 Kindle edition
