Searching for Johnny — James Gibbins

Spanning Wuthering Heights' moors, the Atlanta of a latter-day Scarlett O'Hara, and the urban landscape of present-day America, Searching for Johnny tells the story of a young American flier killed in England during World Ward II, whose legacy is inextricably linked to a chance encounter over fifty years later.

Amanda is a movie producer shooting a film about American fliers on a former bomber base in Yorkshire. One evening she takes a walk along the abandoned runway...and steps into another time. Here she meets Johnny, a captain in the U.S. Eighth Air Force, a warm and intelligent young man who is, in reality, a ghost of the past. During the final month of filming, the near-perfect re-creation of the old base forms a window into another era where Amanda and Johnny continue to find each other and gradually fall in love. Yet when the film is finished, as quickly as Johnny appeared, he disappears forever, leaving Amanda with a string of questions and a heart full of mysterious memories.

Unable to forget her experiences at Yorkshire, Amanda sets off on a journey across America in search of Johnny's identity, in hopes of discovering the long-buried secret that cost him his life. In the course of investigating this young soldier's death, Amanda finds herself contemplating the death of the vintage American spirit.