Daniel Ford: Remains (a story of the Flying Tigers)

WARBIRD FORUM > DANIEL FORD'S BOOKS > REMAINS

Remains: A Story of the Flying Tigers

"A cracking good yarn"

The story of the Flying Tigers--the mercenary pilots of the American Volunteer Group--has been told many times as history, though most AVG histories bear only the slightest resemblance to what actually happened in Burma in the winter of 1941-42. Here, by contrast, is a fiction that recreates the truth of that terrible winter, when the Japanese armed forces were besting British, American, and Dutch colonial forces wherever they met. Only the Flying Tigers gave as good as they got.

Remains The story begins and ends with Eddie Gillespie, a 1990s expat who stumbles upon the wreck of an AVG Tomahawk fighter with a skeleton inside. These remains are guarded by a man who is part American, part British, part Burman, part Indian, and part Thai--a "whole United Nations," all by himself.

But the central characters are A.R. Fitzmartin and John Blackstone, buddies of very different background who joined the Flying Tigers for the sake of adventure, and found more than they'd bargained for. They are human beings, not the cardboard cutouts made famous by the John Wayne movie and a score of Flying Tiger romances. The love interest is provided by two mostly-proper English girls and an Anglo-Burman named Elsbeth McKenzie.

One of the buddies, of course, is fated to be entombed in that Curtiss fighter in the jungles of Thailand. In a beautifully limned conclusion, Eddie Gillespie finds himself wishing that "they'd leave the Tomahawk in the rain forest ... until there was no one alive to remember the Pacific War and the fall of Rangoon and the banner of the Rising Sun--until it was all gone, all of it, flesh and bones and wing panels--all moldered into the black earth of Southeast Asia."

What the reviewers say

Thomas F. Norton in Air & Space/Smithsonian: "It's a cracking good yarn about interesting people, including the Japanese fighter pilot whose story adds special realism to the battles." (Click here for the complete review)

Bruce Gamble (author of Black Sheep One): "In Remains, he draws from the colorful personalities of several real members to create his fictional characters--young mercenary fighter pilots who experience events that really did happen in the desperate days before the fall of Rangoon.... A believable and highly enjoyable read."

Rory J. Aylward from Santa Monica, CA USA: " An absolute must-have for Flying Tiger buffs."

Buy the print edition

First published as a trade paperback by iUniverse in 2000; now out of print. Published by Warbird Books in 2013, 226 pages, 6x9 inches, $12.95.

You can get a signed copy of the paperback delivered to your U.S. mail address for the retail price plus postage, sent by Priority Mail. You can also pay by check. Finally, you may be able to get the paperback through your local bookstore using the ISBN code 978-1492779506, probably with a surcharge.

Buy the e-book

Published as an e-book 2007; revised and updated 2014; $4.99. Available from these and other e-tailers:

Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford