Publisher's Synopsis
On 22 December 1943 the Susan Rae, an American B17 Flying Fortress, is lost. The aircraft is reported to have crashed into the English Channel. There are no survivors and no bodies are recovered. Records of the incident mysteriously go missing. The Susan Rae and its crew vanish, committed to the dustbin of history. On the day the Susan Rae disappears, the English village of Lower Friththingden is the scene of several remarkable events. Two Rolls-Royces are seen parked near the village church. The entourage has paused to listen to the sound of the village children's choir. Overhead a German parachute mine floats down, heading directly toward the church. Inside are most of the village inhabitants, including a young girl rumored to be the illegitimate child of Winston Churchill. More than a half-century later two men, an embittered American and a reclusive Englishman, have their lives altered as a consequence of the disappearance of the Susan Rae. Vince Collesano, ill, depressed, and alone, travels to England to satisfy his wife's final request. Seconds before her death she had pointed to a painting of an English churchyard and asked to have her ashes buried there - in the country where she had been born and raised. Unfortunately, Vince has no idea as to just where in England that particular churchyard is located. The promise cannot be kept without the help of his late wife's cousin, Albert "Bertie" Ambrose, a sad little man who hasn't ventured outside of London for more than thirty years. Despite Vince's intense dislike of Bertie, and all things English, the pair team up for what Vince believes to be a search for his wife's final resting place.
