Benjamin Johncock's debut novel follows the life of US Air Force pilot Jim Harrison, who is trying to start a family in the Mojave Desert whilst dancing with death in the American skies.

The story begins the late 1940s with Harrison attempting to break the sound barrier; by the 1960s he is taking part in another high speed endeavour - the space race. When family troubles bring him back to earth he has to decide whether he wants to make personal or political history. The dialogue is clean and smooth and Johncock's spare prose gallops along at a fair pace, but the plot stalls and fumbles during the last third of the book. It is saved, however, by Johncock's portrayal of the real life Pancho Barnes, a terrific eccentric who broke Amelia Earhart's airspeed record and went on to own the Happy Bottom Riding Club, which served up a heady mix of drinks and entertainment for Air Force pilots in Southern California.