Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway’s Ghost (Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency #2) by Iain Reading

Published: September 10th 2013

Read Date: December 18th 2017

Pages: 339

Stars: 5/5

Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway’s Ghost is the exciting second installment in a new series of adventure mystery stories that are one part travel, one part history and five parts adventure.

This second book in the series continues the adventures of Kitty Hawk, an intrepid teenage pilot who has decided to follow in the footsteps of her hero Amelia Earhart and make an epic flight around the entire world.

After flying across North America Kitty’s journey takes her down south to Florida where she plans to get a bit of rest and relaxation before continuing on with the rest of her long and grueling flight. As Kitty explores the strange and magical water world of the Florida Keys her knack for getting herself into precarious situations sweeps her headlong into the adventure of a lifetime involving mysterious lights, ancient shipwrecks, razor-toothed barracudas and even a sighting of the great Ernest Hemingway himself.

This exhilarating story will have armchair explorers and amateur detectives alike anxiously following every twist and turn as they are swept across the landscape and history of the Florida Keys all the way from Key West to the strange and remarkable world of Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas.

Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway’s Ghost is a perfect book to fire the imaginations of readers of all ages. Filled with fascinating and highly Google-able locations and history this book will inspire anyone to learn about and experience as much of our amazing world as they can – just like Kitty Hawk herself.

Kitty Hawk and the Hunt for Hemingway’s Ghost is second book in ‘Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency’ series.

Charlie Foxtrot Kilo Tango Yankee has returned from the summer adventure solving the mystery of Curse of the Yukon Gold (first book) and ready to starts her solo flight around the world in her De Havilland Beaver on the exactly same date Amelia Earhart started her around the world flight in 1937 and will take you across Canada and down to Miami and then Florida Keys, Key West and Fort Jefferson and will solve the mystery of Ghost of Hemingway.

Like the first book, this one also more part history, equal part adventure and so much learning of geographical facts and history, all this in cool narration by teenage protagonist of the book, Kitty Hawk.

This book can be read standalone but I would suggest start from beginning. You won’t miss much of story but you’ll definitely miss the fun knowing about Kitty’s childhood, her hometown, and of course mystery on Curse of the Yukon Gold.

Kitty Hawk was brilliant throughout the book. Her curious and nosy nature got her into another mystery and also kept it exciting because of her risk-taking nature. I so love this character. Her voice, monologues and spirit was remarkable. Her excitement and curiosity in the book was so contagious that I didn’t want to stop reading about this character. She is my favorite YA heroine.

I loved her father in the beginning of the book for getting her plane ready, planning the rout, supporting her so much. I also liked him during their vacation and definitely for his view for vacation. I’m that kind of person so it was easy for me to like him.

“Most people think a vacation is time to relax and take it easy. My father, on the other hand, thinks a vacation is a time to do things, go places, see things, and experience everything. For him, vacations rarely involve taking easy, and they are almost never relaxing.”

There were two new characters in the book, Jack and Jodi, like brothers in first book who stayed with Kitty till the end. They were so brilliant and were like Wikipedia in the no internet zone of Fort Jefferson. I liked this duo in the book.

I’m so happy with this book that I would tell straight away that grab this book series and read on.  

Unique thing about the book is there was prologue and a chapter zero as well. A perfect start of the book that gave the idea on what kind of adventure trouble Kitty was that made me curious to see what put her into that situation. Loved title of each chapter that were justified in the content of it. Oh and that cover is so beautiful and appropriate.

Let’s talk about the best thing of the book that was impressive. This book, in fact this series is so unlike the usual YA adventures. So full of information that you can also mark this book as good study material in fun way. I enjoyed reading all about new places, facts and histories related to those places and places to visit and famous food there all through this story. I felt like I don’t even know world outside India and should have join Kitty to explore the world if she was a real character.

Narration of all places and even from Kitty’s plane were very descriptive and vivid, especially the sea views and underwater world. This adventure felt so real because of real places included with it, I felt like I was living the adventure and visiting all places through words and lines of the book. Writing was great, characters were great and mystery was definitely mind blowing. Super Great!

First few chapters were about Kitty’s preparation with her seaplane, some modifications and installation of new gears, preparing itinerary, marking the map with stay and refueling and taking care of all necessary thing for around the world flight. Then as she started her flight, she took stops before reaching to Miami for vacation with her family which also included visiting more places, more good-to-know info and then little rest and exploration in Key West where she saw Ghost of Hemingway and so started hunt for ghost of Hemingway which lead her to Hemingway’s ship and them to mysterious glow in the water and to very depth of that mystery. Author created great suspense and the mystery was not fully revealed till second half of the book. I loved how Kitty unraveled it one by one and information she got during that part was unbelievably brilliant.

Thing that I loved to learn from this book were, Whale festival, story of Sleeping Giant, Overseas highway and railway bridge, Jefferson Fort and history related to it, Barracudas, Hemingway’s house tour in which the book recommendation was also given for first time Hemingway readers that I bookmarked for future read, Spaniard’s way of transporting treasure and salvation of them from the shipwrecks, world’s greatest treasure hunter and many more that I avoided because of spoiler.

Twists in the book and the end was surprising. I liked to read the facts and little more details about the places mentioned in the book at the end and as mentioned in the blurb, everything was Google-able. Website links were given by author for self-research and for those who are interested in reading things more detailed. 

Overall, it was fun and interesting underwater and sea adventure. A book for readers of any age who loves adventure and like to explore different places or interested in history.

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 is the author of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series, The Wizards of Waterfire Series, and the dragon of the month club. To learn more, go to http://www.kittyhawkworld.com/

Buy Here: Amazon.in / Amazon.com

*** Note: I received this book from the author via Kelsey @bookpublicityservices, in exchange for an honest review. I am glad I got chance to read this book. ***

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Happy Reading! 🙂