Book Review: Ghost Flight

I recently read a book, a book which I was unsure about but wanted to read it because of who the author was.  What was this book? It was Ghost Flight by Bear Grylls.

What with Bear’s life in the wild and his image of being a man’s man, I was sceptical about what he would be like as a writer.  I did not think the book would be any good, but I was wrong.  The book surprised me, it was a gripping, can’t put this down type of book.  I enjoyed it and am eagerly waiting for the sequel.

Ghost Flight’s central character is Will Jaeger, an ex-army guy.  Here Bear is calling on his previous like in the military and the accounts seem real and genuine because of this. Genuine, because the author knows what he is talking about.

The book takes us on a journey with Will, starting off imprisoned in a jail on an African Island, to the Amazon Jungle where he goes with 9 others to decipher the puzzle of an old plane which has been inside the Amazon for years.  We also visit London where Will owns a house boat and the Scottish Moor where Will has a house with his wife and child.

Will whose past continuously haunts him, is offered the chance to go to the Amazon where as I have mentioned above, him and a team search for an abandoned plane which apparently crashed into the jungle many years ago.  During their venture into the Jungle there are attacked by a tribal gang as well as an unknown group who are hiding in the shadows.  Fortunately the team make friends with the tribal gang who help them get to the plane.

Apparently the plane belonged to the Nazi Germans and the storyline takes us into a history lesson about the Third Reich. Will’s journey to finding this plane and who the plane actually belonged to unravels many secrets of the past and revelations about what actually happened to the Third Reich and the formation of a more powerful Fourth Reich.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bear talks about his Grandfather Ted’s life as a Brigadier where the unit he was in was tasked with capturing Nazi scientists after the D-Day landings.  In his attic he had a trunk which contained a lot of information about Ted’s mission – which Bear used as the basis of Ghost Flight. 

And funnily in the novel, Will has an old trunk of his Grandfather’s in his house which he finds has a secret compartment which is full of secrets about his time in the army and his involvement with hunting the Nazi’s who were influential in the War including Hitler.

For me it was an interesting and intriguing book and it was an enjoyable read.