Air Bridge [Mass Market Paperback]

Hammond Innes (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fontana Books (1970)
• ASIN: B000RWDWWE
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Hammond Innes' best books., October 14, 2011

By 

H. Jin (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Air Bridge (Paperback)

'Air Bridge' is one of Hammond Innes' best books. The plot is one of his cleverest and most audacious, and in Saeton he has created one of his most memorable antagonists.

Former WW2 pilot and aircraft engineer Neil Fraser has found it difficult to adjust to civilian life, and has been reduced to stealing planes and flying them overseas to make a living. On the run in England, Fraser stumbles across Saeton at a deserted former RAF airfield, and Saeton offers to keep him hidden from the authorities in exchange for Fraser building a new aircraft engine. The aim is to install the engine on an aircraft bound for the Berlin Airlift, with a view to showing off in the most public fashion the engine's superior performance and economy. But the plans for this new engine have allegedly been stolen from the Germans, and Saeton will stop at nothing to prevent this becoming public knowledge. Seaton's increasingly ruthless drive to both complete the engine and keep the secret result in his transformation from a flawed protagonist at the beginning of the story to a genuine villain at the end, and Fraser's attempts to escape the tightening net Saeton draws around him forms the centrepiece of the novel. Innes does an outstanding job of charting this battle of wills; Saeton's enthusiasm is infectious despite his maniacal obsession, and Fraser's criminal past means he has nowhere to turn when Saeton goes over the edge.

As always with Hammond Innes, the characters and setting make the book. The Berlin Airlift is realistically described and has an important place in events, and he does an excellent job in conveying the cold lonliness and claustrophobia of the abandoned wartime airfield. And the characters are some of his best; in addition to Fraser and Saeton, we have Tubby Carter as the naive-but-stubborn engineer, who works solidly at building the engine while blissfully unaware of the growing tension between the two main characters. There is Carter's wife, who uneasily balances romantic feelings for Saeton with her loyalty to Tubby. And then there is Else, the German girl whose father produced the plans Saeton allegedly stole. Innes traps all five characters at the deserted airfield early on, setting up an almost unbearable tension that results in the explosive events of the second half of the book. Saeton and his engines seem to dominate everyone and everything, and you always have the sense that the other characters are mere pawns in his hands, even if they don't know it.

For those new to Hammond Innes, I would strongly recommend 'Air Bridge' as a good place to start. All the Innes elements are in place; "everyman" protagonist, a memorable antagonist who is the most well-drawn character, strong and capable female characters, and realistic settings. 'Air Bridge' is one of Innes' best ever books, and I highly recommend it not only as a thriller, but also as an outstanding character study and piece of descriptive writing.

Five stars.