They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I confess it was the cover of Curtis Fernlund’s The Queen of Escapes that sold me the book.
One hour after seeing the cover for the first time (on Barry Reese’s blog), the ebook was on my Kindle (I’d have made it sooner, but my web connection was too shaky).
That same night, I happily sacrificed a few hours of sleep to read the first two chapters of the novel.
By that time, I was hooked.
Now, I need more.

Set in 1935, The Queen of Escapes drops us smack in the middle of a movie set, somewhere in the Amazon Jungle.
Action serial star Gloria Swann is not aging gracefully, and her long suffering stunt double, Angela Morgan, is first in line when it comes to taking the brunt of her tempers – and she has to risk her neck, too, in complicated action shots.
But there’s something moving in the jungle, something that seems set on getting Gloria… and once again Angela is first in line when trouble comes.

The book is a fun, well-written adventure yarn – Fernlund handles both action and dialogue with verve, and the cast of characters is intriguing and well-drawn. The novel is fast but nothing seems rushed – it’s paced marvelously, and it’s very very good, old-style adventure fiction.

And talking about well-drawn characters – the cover by Andy Fish is gorgeous, and the black & white interior illustrations by James Lyle are equally excellent.

All in all a great book – great story, characters, artwork.
Airship 27 delivers the goods (again), and I can’t recommend this fine book strongly enough.
Get it – it will be fun.