"Louis Thorn and Haruto "Harry" Yamada--Eagle and Crane--are the star attractions of Earl Shaw's Flying Circus, a daredevil (and not exactly legal) flying act that traverses Depression-era California. The young men have a complicated relationship, thanksto the Thorn family's belief that the Yamadas--Japanese immigrants--stole land that should have stayed in the Thorn family. When Louis and Harry become aerial stuntmen, performing death-defying tricks high above audiences, they're both drawn to Shaw's smart and appealing stepdaughter, Ava Brooks. After the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and one of Shaw's planes mysteriously crashes and two charred bodies are discovered in it, authorities conclude that the victims were Harry and his father, Kenichi, who had escaped from a Japanese internment camp they had been sent to by the federal government. To the local sheriff, the situation is open and shut. But to the lone FBI agent assigned to the case, the details don't add up. Thus begins an investigation into what really happened to cause the plane crash, who was in the plane when it fell from the sky, and why no one involved seems willing to tell the truth. By turns an absorbing mystery and a fascinating exploration of race, family and loyalty, Eagle and Crane is that rare novel that tells a gripping story as it explores a terrible era of American history"--
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Two daredevil flyers and the young woman they both love lie at the heart of this mesmerizing novel about the Japanese internment during World War II, from the author of The Other Typist and Three-Martini Lunch."An epic love story set against a time of upheaval." —Adriana Trigiani"Majestic. . . . Profoundly relevant in today’s world." —Fiona Davis Louis Thorn and Harry Yamada are boyhood friends divided by family differences. But their childhood camaraderie reignites when they are convinced to perform death-defying tricks as Eagle & Crane in Earl Shaw’s Flying Circus —until their mutual attraction to Shaw’s stepdaughter, smart and beautiful Ava Brooks, complicates things anew. Then Pearl Harbor is bombed in December 1941 and Harry is imprisoned in a Japanese American internment camp. When a Shaw stunt plane crashes soon after Harry and his father leave the camp without permission, the two bodies discovered are assumed to be theirs. But the details don’t add up, and no one involved seems willing to tell the truth. An absorbing mystery and story of love, Eagle & Crane explores race, family, and loyalty in a fraught era of American history.“Rindell joins the ranks of popular historical fiction authors Kristin Hannah and Kate Quinn with this fast-paced, gripping novel.” —Library Journal (starred review)
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