Flight Dreams

The Mark Manning Mysteries, Book 1

By: Michael Craft

Narrated by: David Phillips

A masterpiece of mystery and suspense, this is the moving story of a man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality.

Investigative journalist Mark Manning is on the trail of a story that could make his career. Airline heiress Helena Carter, who vanished seven years ago, is about to be declared legally dead. Her fortune, valued at over one hundred million dollars, will go to the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and the Federated Cat Clubs of America. Manning is the only one who believes that the missing Chicago socialite is still alive. And he’s just been given an ultimatum by his publisher: Prove it, or he’s history.

Determined to keep his job - and hoping to secure the five-hundred-thousand-dollar reward from Carter’s estate, as well as the coveted Partridge Prize for investigative journalism - Manning enters a world of religious fanatics who could turn back the clock on gay rights. At the same time, Manning grapples with his own sexuality as he falls in love for the first time - with the man of his dreams. Flight Dreams is the first book in Michael Craft’s Mark Manning series, which continues with Eye Contact and Body Language.

©2013 Michael Craft (P)2020 Michael Craft

Generational insight

A mystery that is engaging enough, but the best part of the book was how it captures the coming out process for a middle age man from an earlier generation. Unlike for the Millennials and GenZ, earlier generations had far greater societal headwinds to contend with, and we see this in the interval struggles of the main character.

Lots of twists once you get into the story

Worth a listen, creates good personal tale of late personal awareness, denial can last a long time... The story develops nicely and gets you hooked to know more to the end.

Interesting Story

I liked the mystery of socialite disappearance and how Mark Manning went through the process of unraveling the clues and figuring out what really happened. It took me a bit to get used to the storytelling style and, but this is the first book in the Mark Mannings mysteries series and I think with every following book I will get more engrossed in the stories. I am going to check out next book in the series. Narrator did a good job and I liked his voice.