Clayton Knight was a successful aviation artist in 1917, before shipping off to train as a pilot in England's Royal Air Corps. After the war, he wrote and illustrated historical books on subjects like the Battle of Britain and the Normandy Invasion, was an official artist of the United States Air Force.
Skyroad to Mystery is the third in a series of adventures about young men flying international cargo ships. Mild on the mystery but highlighting exotic locales, such seat-of-your-pants adventure certainly would have been exciting to read back in 1954.
Pepe Gregory is a young career pilot heading the Globetrotters, a small band of flyers jumping countries in planes named Wanderer and Nomad delivering cargo. Starting in Istanbul, they fly into a wild storm over Newfoundland then down to New York - unaware they acquired a stowaway. Off to Alaska, then Aruba and Chile, where Pepe meets up with his explorer father and younger brother. Tracked by the FBI to find out the purpose of the stowaway, it all comes to a head in the Amazon jungle where the revelation of a secret jade mine pales to the excitement that secret military weapons plans are being sabotaged by one of their own men.
Each chapter is introduced by Knight's fine illustrations and the story only stops long enough for a refuel. The focus is on adventure rather than mystery, not only at each exotic stop but mid-air as they battle the elements. As a fan of air dramas, this was a fun and enjoyable travelogue across the globe.
1954 / Hardcover / 222 pages
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