Not they who soar

Flower's dazzling second mystery featuring Wilbur and Orville Wright's sister, Katharine (after To Slip the Bonds of the Earth), is even better than the first. In 1904, Katharine travels from Ohio to St. Louis to attend the World's Fair with her best friend, Margaret Meacham. Though the expo features an aeronautical competition, Katharine's brothers have stayed home, convinced they can't compete with the lineup of hot air balloons. Shortly after Katharine arrives at the St. Louis train station, a breathless young woman fleeing a group of men asks for her help, then dashes away. Katharine pushes the encounter from her mind--until she finds the young woman dying near a Brazilian pilot's sabotaged balloon. The stranger's final words, ­"aeronautic competition,"­ move Katharine and Margaret to dig into the fair's seedy underbelly. Flower plays scrupulously fair with readers, and she continues to mold Katharine into a top-shelf gumshoe without stretching credibility or straying too far from the historical record. This series deserves a long run. Agent: Nicole Rescinti, Seymour Agency. (May)

The youngest member of the Wright family--sister of Wilbur and Orville--solves her second murder case. Whether despite or because of the challenges posed by the death of her mother, Katharine Wright is a strong and independent woman. A graduate of Oberlin College, she holds a teaching position and actively supports her renowned brothers' work. Upon arriving in St. Louis in 1904 as a guest of her college friend Margaret Goodwin Meacham, whose husband is at the World's Fair to promote his bank, Katharine experiences a brief but harrowing encounter with a distraught woman at a railroad station. Fortunately, she's saved from a nasty fall by another Oberlin classmate, reporter Harry Haskell. The fair's overwhelming abundance of attractions renders Katharine's two-week stay insufficient to explore all its offerings. Although a pending patent has kept her brothers from competing for the fair's prestigious aeronautical prize, Katharine is intrigued by the candidates' endeavors. On her first evening at the fairgrounds, she encounters Alberto Santos-Dumont, an arrogant Brazilian balloonist favored to win the prize. Upon arriving at Santos-Dumont's hangar, she and Margaret discover that his balloon has been vandalized, and they spot the woman from the railroad station nearby. Running in pursuit of her, Katharine rounds a corner to find the woman stabbed and uttering the words "aeronautic competition" before succumbing to her injuries. The investigation reveals a multitude of potential suspects, including a twin sister, a menacing carny, and several other competitors for that prize. The World's Fair emerges as the central figure, complemented by a profusion of characters, many drawn from real life. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.