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Title: The Last Pilot

Author: Benjamin Johncock

Narrator: Donald Corren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-07-15

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Jim Harrison is a test pilot in the United States Air Force, one of the exalted few. He spends his days cheating death in the skies above the Mojave Desert and his nights at his friend Pancho's bar, often with his wife, Grace. She and Harrison are secretly desperate for a child - and when, against all odds, Grace learns that she is pregnant, the two are overcome with joy.

While America becomes swept up in the fervor of the space race, Harrison turns his attention home, passing up the chance to become an astronaut to welcome his daughter, Florence, into the world. Together, he and Grace confront the thrills and challenges of raising a child head-on. Fatherhood is different from flying planes - less controlled, more anxious - however the pleasures of watching Florence grow are incomparable. But when his family is faced with a sudden and inexplicable tragedy, Harrison's instincts as a father and a pilot are put to the test. As a pilot he feels compelled to lead them through it - and as a father he fears that he has fallen short.

The aftermath will haunt the Harrisons and strain their marriage as Jim struggles under the weight of his decisions. Beginning when the dust of the Second World War has only just begun to settle and rushing onward into the 1960s, Benjamin Johncock traces the path of this young couple as they are uprooted by events much larger than themselves. The turns the Harrisons take together are at once astonishing and recognizable, their journey both frightening and full of hope. Set against the backdrop of one of the most emotionally charged periods in American history, The Last Pilot is a mesmerizing story of loss and finding courage in the face of it from an extraordinary new talent.

Members Reviews:

"Then let's hit the sky and light this candle"

This debut novel by an English author packs in an integral slice of American historyâthe space program in the late fifties/early sixties and the Cold War. However, what makes this book utterly compelling and emotionally acute is a story of one familyâ(fictional) test pilot Jim Harrison, and his wife, Grace. They live in the high desert of The Mojave Desert, in Muroc, âthe largest slab of uninterrupted flatness on Earth.â Itâs a wide expanse of nothingness, but they love calling it home. This is where their friends live, and their life is built. The story begins in media res, demanding that the reader focus intently.

I was glad that I didnât know much about the book, and I waited to read the cover flap until after I finished the last page. Discovery and pacing are intricately tied to the suspense, and going into it blind rouses intensity for the reader. Iâm going to avoid talking about much content and primarily share impressions. Jim Harrison is fearless, instinctive, brave, and equipped to handle all the dangers of his job; each day he flies, he confronts mortal hazards. But what happens when he canât confront the pitfalls in his personal life? He is unafraid in the skies but timorous on the ground. How does this dissonance play out in a marriage? Grace is supportive and forbearing, and, at times, emotionally fragile. Empathy for both characters ripples from the narrative. The dialogue between them (and other characters) is superlative, without any clichés often present in a dialogue-heavy book.