Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold by Iain Reading: Book review and excerpt
Book title/Author: Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold by Iain Reading
Publisher/Year: December 2012
Genre: YA Adventure/Mystery
Series: Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency #1
Pages: 336
Source/Format: Paperback provided by publisher
(Thanks Book Publicity Services / Iain and a special thanks to Kelsey at BPS!)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion.
*This review may contain spoilers!*
Synopsis
Kitty Hawk and the
Curse of the Yukon Gold is
the thrilling first instalment in a new young adult series of adventure
mystery stories by Iain Reading. This
first book of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series introduces Kitty
Hawk, an intrepid teenage pilot with her own De Havilland Beaver seaplane and a
nose for mystery and intrigue. A cross between Amelia Earhart, Nancy Drew and
Pippi Longstocking, Kitty is a quirky young heroine with boundless curiosity
and a knack for getting herself into all kinds of precarious situations.
After leaving her
home in the western Canadian fishing village of Tofino to spend the summer in
Alaska studying humpback whales, Kitty finds herself caught up in an
unforgettable adventure involving stolen gold, devious criminals, ghostly
shipwrecks, and bone-chilling curses. Kitty's adventure begins with the
lingering mystery of a sunken ship called the Clara Nevada. As the plot
continues to unfold, this spirited story will have readers anxiously following
every twist and turn as they are swept along through the history of the
Klondike Gold Rush to a suspenseful final climatic chase across the rugged
terrain of Canada's Yukon.
Kitty Hawk and the
Curse of the Yukon Gold is a
perfect book to fire the imagination of readers of all ages. Filled with
fascinating and highly Google-able locations and history this book will inspire
anyone to learn and experience more for themselves.
There are currently four books in the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective
Agency Series: Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold (book 1), Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway's Ghost (book 2), Kitty Hawk and the Icelandic Intrigue (book 3), and Kitty Hawk and the Tragedy of the RMS Titanic (book 4). Each book can be read as a standalone.
“In the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency
Series the heroine finds herself in a new geographic location in each book. The
series will eventually have a total of 13 books in it (maybe more) and her
flight around the world will be completed in the end,” says Iain. “The books
are sequential but one could definitely read any of the later ones before
reading the earlier ones.”
My review
When I started this book, I had no idea whether or not I would like this book at all, but I am pleased to say that this book was actually very enjoyable. Kitty was such an exuberant and adventurous character, and I had a lot of fun experiencing the adventure with her.
One thing that I enjoyed about this book that I feel I don't get a lot from in other books was the impressive amount of factual and educational information provided to me. I didn't expect to learn anything from this book, but thanks to Kitty Hawk I have learnt about humpback whales, wildlife in Alaska and Canada, history about the gold rush, and even more. However, there were some times where I felt too much information was dumped on to me at one point, and it sort of went off in a different direction, not keeping to the story.
This book pleasantly surprised me as I didn't expect to fall in love with the setting of Alaska, but I did! I loved reading about the small towns and the snow.
It wasn't just Kitty that I loved from this book, as I really liked her dad, and Uncle Joe, and all the boys, but especially Charlie. The relationship that Kitty formed with the boys was so sweet, but I also had so much fun reading it and it had me laughing out loud at times.
The only issues I had with this book were the times when I got dumped with information, and the beginning wasn't the greatest. Other than that I have no complaints and I would love to continue with this series!
About the author:
Iain Reading is passionate about Root Beer,
music, and writing. He is Canadian, but currently resides in the Netherlands
working for the United Nations.
Iain has published 4 books in the Kitty Hawk
Flying Detective Agency Series. Iain is currently working on the 5th
book in the Kitty Hawk series. For more information on the series, go to http://www.kittyhawkworld.com/.
Iain is also the author of The Wizards of
Waterfire Series. The first book in the series The Guild of the Wizards
of Waterfire was
published in April 2014.
Excerpt:
Here is an excerpt from Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold:
Prologue
Back Where The Entire Adventure Began
As soon
as the engine began to sputter, I knew that I was in real trouble. Up until
then, I had somehow managed to convince myself that there was just something
wrong with the fuel gauges. After all, how could I possibly have burnt through
my remaining fuel as quickly as the gauges seemed to indicate? It simply wasn't
possible. But with the engine choking and gasping, clinging to life on the last
fumes of aviation fuel, it was clear that when the fuel gauges read,
"Empty," they weren't kidding around.
The
lightning strike that took out my radio and direction-finding gear hadn't
worried me all that much. (Okay, I admit it worried me a little bit.) It
wasn't the first time that this had happened to me, and besides, I still had my
compasses to direct me to where I was going. But I did get a little bit
concerned when I found nothing but open ocean as far my eyes could see at
precisely the location where I fully expected to find tiny Howland Island—and
its supply of fuel for the next leg of my journey—waiting for me. The rapidly
descending needles on my fuel gauges made me even more nervous as I continued
to scout for the island, but only when the engine began to die did I realize
that I really had a serious problem on my hands.
The
mystery of the disappearing fuel.
The
enigma of the missing island.
The
conundrum of what do I do now?
"Exactly,"
the little voice inside my head said to me in one of those annoying
'I-told-you-so' kind of voices. "What do you do now?"
"First,
I am going to stay calm," I replied. "And think this through."
"You'd
better think fast," the little voice said, and I could almost hear it
tapping on the face of a tiny wristwatch somewhere up there in my psyche.
"If you want to make it to your twentieth birthday, that is. Don't forget that you're almost out of
fuel."
"Thanks
a lot," I replied. "You're a big help."
Easing
forward with the control wheel I pushed my trusty De Havilland Beaver into a
nosedive. Residual fuel from the custom-made fuel tanks at the back of the
passenger cabin dutifully followed the laws of gravity and spilled forward,
accumulating at the front and allowing the fuel pumps to transfer the last
remaining drops of fuel into the main forward belly tank. This maneuver
breathed life back into the engine and bought me a few more precious minutes to
ponder my situation.
"Mayday,
mayday, mayday," I said, keying my radio transmitter as I leveled my
flight path out again. "This is aircraft Charlie Foxtrot Kilo Tango
Yankee, calling any ground station or vessel hearing this message, over."
I
keyed the mic off and listened intently for a reply. Any reply. Please? But
there was nothing. There was barely even static. My radio was definitely fried.
It was
hard to believe that it would all come down to this. After the months of
preparation and training. After all the adventures that I'd had, the friends
I'd made, the beauty I'd experienced, the differences and similarities I'd
discovered from one culture to the next and from one human being to the next.
All of this in the course of my epic flight around the entire world.
Or I
should say, "my epic flight almost around the entire world,"
in light of my current situation.
And
the irony of it was absolutely incredible. Three-quarters of a century earlier
the most famous female pilot of them all had disappeared over this exact same
endless patch of Pacific Ocean on her own quest to circle the globe. And she
had disappeared while searching for precisely the same island that was also
eluding me as I scanned the horizon with increasing desperation.
"Okay,"
I thought to myself. "Just be cool and take this one step at a time to
think the situation through." I closed my eyes and focused on my
breathing, slowing it down and reining in the impulse to panic. Inside my head,
I quickly and methodically replayed every flight that I'd ever flown. Every
emergency I'd ever faced. Every grain of experience that I had accumulated
along the long road that had led me to this very moment. Somewhere in there was
a detail that was the solution to my current predicament. I was sure of it. And
all I had to do was find it.
Maybe
the answer to my current situation lay somewhere among the ancient temples of
Angkor in Cambodia? Or in the steamy jungles of east Africa? Or inside the towering
pyramids of Giza? Or among the soaring minarets of Sarajevo? Or on the emerald
rolling hills and cliffs of western Ireland? Or on the harsh and rocky lava
fields of Iceland?
Wherever
the answer was, it was going to have to materialize quickly, or another female
pilot (me) would run the risk of being as well-known throughout the world as
Amelia Earhart. And for exactly the same reason.
"It's
been a good run at least," the little voice inside my head observed,
turning oddly philosophical as the fuel supplies ran critically low.
"You've had more experiences on this journey around the world than some
people do in their entire lifetime."
"That's
it!" I thought.
Maybe
the answer to all this lies even further back in time? All the way back to the
summer that had inspired me to undertake this epic journey in the first place.
All the way back to where North America meets the Pacific Ocean—the islands and
glaciers and whales of Alaska.
All
the way back to where this entire adventure began.
Izzy
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