Clinton Petrie

Hwelte: the Mustang Clinton Petrie

The Old West collides with World War II. In Roy McShane's second installment of his trilogy, HWELTE, bomber pilot First Lieutenant Chuck Hewitt returns home wounded from Stalingrad, in 1943, to his parent's ranch at Flagstaff, Arizona. He's a broken man looking for answers-ultimately finding those answers in the extraordinary history of his white grandfather's and Navajo grandmother's struggle to forge a life together against all odds in the 1880s. Inspired by his grandparent's hardships, Chuck decides to get back in the war and transfers into fighters. He eventually winds up in England, in 1944, with the 354th Fighter Group-the first group to fly and fight over Europe in the new, revolutionary P-51 Mustang. Whereupon, after his initial mission escorting B-17s over Germany, Chuck makes a startling discovery about the common denominator fighter pilots and bomber pilots share: They are all condemned men living on death row. "... McShane's descriptions of the American West, and the air war in Europe during World War II, are the best I've ever read."-San Francisco Bay Guardian"The Old West collides with World War II. Strap in and hold on for the ride of your life..."-Los Angeles New Times "...a western, a war story, a flying story and a love story, McShane pulls them all together with exciting realism."-St. Louis Post-DispatchHWELTE (whell-`tay) n. Navajo: meaning fortress or place of refuge. Author's Websites: www.thaiwave.com/hweltewww.phuketdir.com/hwelte