Flight of Dreams

A Novel

By: Ariel Lawhon

Narrated by: John Lee

With everyone onboard harboring dark secrets and at least one person determined to make sure the airship doesn't make the return trip, Flight of Dreams gives an utterly suspenseful, heart-wrenching explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries of the 20th century.

On the evening of May 3, 1937, Emilie Imhof boards the Hindenburg. As the only female crew member, Emilie has access to the entire airship, from the lavish dining rooms and passenger suites to the gritty engine cars and control room. She hears everything, but with rumors circulating about bomb threats, Emilie's focus is on maintaining a professional air...and keeping her own plans under wraps.

What Emilie can't see is that everyone - from the dynamic vaudeville acrobat to the high-standing German officer - seems to be hiding something.

Giving free rein to countless theories of sabotage, charade, and mishap, Flight of Dreams takes us on the thrilling three-day transatlantic flight through the alternating perspectives of Emilie; Max, the ship's navigator, who is sweet on her; Gertrud, a bold female journalist who's been blacklisted in her native Germany; Werner, a 13-year-old cabin boy with a bad habit of sneaking up on people; and a brash American who's never without a drink in his hand. Everyone knows more than they initially let on, and as the novel moves inexorably toward its tragic climax, the question of which of the passengers will survive the trip infuses every scene with a deliciously unbearable tension.

With enthralling atmospheric details that immediately transport and spellbinding plotting that would make Agatha Christie proud, Flight of Dreams will keep you guessing till the last minute. And, as The New York Times Book Review said of her last novel, "This book is more meticulously choreographed than a chorus line. It all pays off".

©2016 Ariel Lawhon (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"For her second outing, Lawhon once again reimagines a front-page news event, filling in the entertaining backstory with passion, secrets, and nail-biting suspense, this time taking on the disastrous crash of the Hindenburg in 1937.... Lawhon threads many stories together, connecting passengers and crew and bringing behind-the-scenes depth and humanity to a great 20th-century tragedy - even though we all know the Hindenburg's fate." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Ariel Lawhon has real vision and the writing chops to back it up. She weaves the voices and lives of the Hindenburg's doomed - and surviving - passengers together in intricate fashion, linking them at startling intersections that bind them into a single, riveting tale. It's a fascinating blend of love and murder, big dreams and betrayal, history and pure imagination - I could not put it down." (Sara Gruen, New York Times best-selling author of Water for Elephants and At the Water's Edge)

" Flight of Dreams enthralls, taking the reader on the doomed last flight of the Hindenburg with a story so vivid, it is impossible to pull away. Mystery, romance - it is all here, told in a mesmerizing tale." (Kate Alcott, New York Times best-selling author of The Dressmaker)

Pretty good over all. It was interesting to me because my father saw the Hindenburg fly over before it exploded.

I liked the format of doing chapters about people on the Hindenburg. Liked John Lee as the narrator.

I enjoyed learning more about this moment in history.

I loved the relationships of the crew and guests as portrayed as well as the proposed reason for the explosion.

Thoroughly engaging

I really felt like I knew the characters. Sadly, we all know how this one ends. I liked how the author gave references at the end for the stories of these real people in the book.

Very Vivid and Interesting

If you are a history buff, and enjoy a bit of a WWII mystery mixed in with real life, don't miss this book. I am glad I read it and would read another by this author. Also, the narrator is great, and the author paints vivid pictures with her words.

From all the pictures I assumed everyone on board this airship died but that isn't so. The book opens telling you of two, possibly three, survivors that this story hinges around. This way, it's very much cat and mouse as you are left guessing who did what and who survived. Well written.

I wanted to love it

I love this author, but this book was a bit tough for me to get into. I really didn’t love the narrator, so perhaps that was part of it. The story is good though & I loved that it was something so different from other historical fiction novels.

A mixed bag

This was an interesting book, with interesting theories. I found almost everything far fetched. The reality of the very end was moving perhaps because that part was most authentic. The deaths were tragic and the survivors were left seemingly devastated and being sent back to Hitlers Germany.

The parts I completely skipped were about the dogs. As a dog lover, I struggled to find their poor quality of life necessary for the storyline.

Great read and well performed.

A lovely human tale about what could have happened, or perhaps should have happened on that fateful flight.

Good novel, just not riveting

I enjoyed this book. I enjoy Lawhon’s style and creativity. The reason for 4 stars and not 5 is simply because the novel wasn’t absolutely captivating.

Makes you wonder

Really enjoyed this book. So many little twists. And the airship information and the notes from the author at the end was really good.

Interesting historical fiction

If you enjoy historical fiction, this book is for you. It’s about a period of time that most people are not familiar with the Hindenburg disaster. There’s been major motion, pictures about it and many documentaries and this author provides one interesting storyline involving the actual characters that were present.

This book stimulated my interest enough to encourage me to look up more information about it, which is what historical fiction should do. The author actually incorporated extensive true facts into the story and I very much enjoyed reading about that period of time

Very entertaining story