Roseanna's Reply — Frank Johnson

Roseanna's Reply is a story about flying. It is a murder mystery. It is a story about family and love and friendship and a young woman born half a century too soon.In the early months of WWII an enigmatic bush pilot named Waldo comes to the rescue of downed American ferry pilot Roseanna Kendell in the northern wilds of Canada. The daughter of Dutch Kendell, president of North American Aviation, Roseanna is strong-willed and volatile and has inherited her father's love of aviation. And from her Mexican mother she has inherited uncommon beauty and a bond with an extended family and their culture south of the boarder.When Roseanna learns that her Canadian savior is not only a Battle of Britain veteran but a Merlin magician as well, she concocts a scheme to bring him to Los Angeles ostensibly to work for her father but in fact, to become her mentor. She has never seen anyone who can fly like Waldo.But a plot to disrupt aircraft production at her father's plant results in a family tragedy and changes Roseanna's life.With Waldo's help as well as that of a former FBI agent turned Air Corps Captain, Roseanna sets off on a mission to learn who was behind the plot. After a rocky start, the three begin working together to solve a mystery that will lead to more murders and take them throughout California, into Mexico, to Washington, D.C. and eventually to Europe. It is a journey that will see them cross paths - and occasionally swords - with the likes of Howard Hughes, General Jimmy Doolittle, Hap Arnold, Captain Ronald Reagan, William Randolph Hearst and J. Edgar Hoover. In the process, the three will learn more than what they bargained for...about each other and about who would destroy the Kendall family.Finally, while flying in the guise of civilian technical advisers in the skies of war-torn Europe, Roseanna and Waldo will fulfill their destinies from the cockpit of one of the deadliest fighters of WWII, the Mustang.