Nevil Shute's second novel joins a romantic theme to a masterly story of adventure in the air during the uneasy peace between the wars.
Peter Moran, agent to Lord Arner, stops his car one rainswept night on the Sussex Downs to give an unwanted lift. His passenger turns out to be Maurice Lenden, an old war-time comrade, who has just crash landed a high speed french bomber.
Caught up in the ploys of espionage, Moran finds himself trapped between loyalties as treason and intrigue lead him to a desperate chase across Europe.

In an authors note at the beginning of the reviewed edition of this book, Shute notes that he was 'clearly...still obsessed with standard subjects as a source of drama'. That may have been so, however it doesn't disguise the fact that even that early in his writing career, he was a master storyteller with a talent for romance and adventure in his stories which I have yet to see replicated.

Shute's command of the basic elements necessary for a damn good story are evident in this book, which presses all the right buttons to get one interested from the very beginning of the story.

You will find no tawdry attempts to convey intimate scenes in print with this novel. Shute maintains a constant theme of proper, gentlemanly and ladylike behaviour within his early novels which give them an almost naive innocence when read. If one remembers however that these books were written in an era when storyline was more important than the ability to shock, you will find yourself inescapably drawn into the story of Maurice Lenden and his series of bad decisions and equally bad luck.