I previously read and reviewed Terrance Layhew’s first novel, One Man’s Treasure, which I enjoyed. Now he has a new series with pilot Mitch Mayhew coming from Veritas Entertainment, which is putting out works by several authors under the heading of “men’s adventure fiction.” I’ve seen several of these on Amazon, but have yet to check them out.
Layhew has put out the first two Mitch Mayhew stories. Full disclosure, I was sent copies of both of them.
Each volume is small, about 4- by 7-inches in size, the smallest print-on-demand works I’ve seen. They are 80 and 100 pages in length, so these are not novels. I’m not sure if they would qualify as short stories or novelettes. They should be read in order, as they are directly linked.
We start off with “Unwanted Passenger.” The story is set after World War I. Our hero, Mitch Mayhew, is an airmail pilot based in Chicago. He flies a DH-4 Liberty he named Circe, and it’s clear he is a former WWI pilot.
His main route takes him from Chicago to Omaha to Denver and back. But this time, there are a couple of changes. One is when a group of Chicago policemen gives him important evidence against the Meadows Gang that needs to get to Denver. The other is an unexpected passenger, Kathleen Dumont, who is going to Denver. Why she is flying versus taking a train is unknown. Should be easy, yes? But then we wouldn’t have much of a story.
When they start to leave from Omaha, a group of men shows up and tries to shoot them down. Then, when they get to Denver, someone attacks them flying a Fokker and shoots them down. Is it the Meadows Gang or someone else? Will Mitch be able to get the evidence to the police and figure out what is going on? Will he learn more about Kathleen and why she is flying, and is she possibly the cause of what is going on?
The next work, “Diamonds in Denver,” follows directly from the first one. Here we find our main characters in Denver, trying to sell some diamonds before they leave the city. But, of course, there will be complications caused by both a thief and a house detective at their hotel.
We’ll have to see where this story goes as they head further west.
In addition, there is the third part of a story with Dr. Veritas at the end of this volume. No author is given. It looks like this is a series that runs in the back of several of the Veritas volumes. The first part is apparently in “In the Heart of Alexandria,” and the fourth part is in “Noah Redford.” I have no idea about the second part or how long this will run.
Overall, the Mitch Mayhew stories were pretty good. I’m interested to see where this is going. I am also taking a look at some of the other works from Veritas to see if any look worth checking out as well. There should be some good stuff here.
Your comments