📖 Book Review ~ Airthief by Michael Kearns

Troubadour
March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

In 1989, Spitfire JK187 and its pilot’s remains are discovered in a bog in southern England. Former WW2 test pilot Peter Thorpe becomes drawn into the recovery, while being troubled by returning memories of a failed mission in 1942 – to the concern of his wife, herself a wartime Spitfire delivery pilot.Thorpe becomes increasingly fixated on confronting his past, endeavouring to write a book about this two-man mission to steal Germany’s superior fighter plane, the Focke-Wulf 190.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, as the infamous Wall is being dismantled, Johanna Schreib comes across one of her grandfather’s wartime photographs of an FW.190 – a clue to his hidden past. The emotionally fragile Johanna has a need to know more, but Erich Schreib refuses to cooperate.

Airthief interweaves Thorpe’s struggle with his fragmenting mind and Johanna’s quest to uncover her family secrets. From opposite sides of the Channel, they stitch this history together, and as the revelations threaten to engulf both families, Johanna journeys to England to uncover the truth – ultimately bringing the two old foes together and laying to rest the ghost of Spitfire JK187.

📖 My Review..

There’s quite a lot of scene setting at the start of this WW2 novel which takes some concentration as, at first, I wasn’t sure which direction the book was heading but the pieces start to fit together and a story of wartime experiences start to come to life. 

Gradually a picture starts to emerge of what was happening on both sides of the war, we begin to understand the troubled mind of Peter Thorpe, once a WW2 test pilot who is writing a memoir of his wartime experiences. He is upset by a failed wartime mission and still experiences nightmares because of what happened. Over in Germany, Johanna Schreib finds a wartime photo amongst her grandfather’s possessions however Erich Schreib is unwilling to reveal anything to his granddaughter.

After an initial slow start I found the story blended history and fiction well and I enjoyed how the story unfolded. The author has obviously done his research in order to bring a realistic edge to the story. Published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Airthief is an interesting story about a different aspect of WW2. 

About the Author

Michael Kearns was born in the city of Brandon in the Canadian Prairies. He moved to the UK at the age of twenty, where he trained as a violin maker/restorer and is a founding partner at Oxford Violins. His first novel is titled Clinkerstone.