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This book is exactly as racist as you would expect from the title, which is especially unfortunate as it's otherwise a really good story with an unusual, clever plot. It's a wartime mystery and it's very well-done.
In WWII, Biggles and his squadron are transported in deep secrecy, finally ending up on a base in India. There's an important supply route between India and China, but planes which fly it have been crashing inexplicably. There's no apparently sabotage, nor are they getting shot down as far as anyone can tell. At some point in a routine flight, they drop out of radio contact, fly erratically for a minute or so, then crash. So far there have been no survivors, and so many men and planes have been lost that the base is having a collective nervous breakdown, with men drinking heavily and generally coming undone.
Biggles proceeds to investigate this under incredibly tense circumstances in which he or his men are liable to die any time they fly the route, all the obvious checks have already been done, and he's now in charge of men who are already burned out and ready to throw their lives away just to get it over with.
The mystery plot is great, there's some good adventure scenes, and one of the aerial battles is among his best aerial battle sequences that I've read so far - it's terrifying, horrifying, and beautifully written.
Aaaaaand also there is a lot of racism. A LOT of racism. Though at one point Biggles tells his men not to call Indians "natives" because it's discourteous. JOHNS. You were so close!
Spoilers!
What's going on is that drugged candy is getting placed inside the planes, so when the pilots eat it en route, they get very high and then pass out. (It comes from official supplies, so it appears to be just part of their kit.) Cleverly, the high simulates extreme drunkenness, so on the occasion that a pilot takes it out of the plane and eats it on the ground, everyone assumes they're drunk. The victims themselves, if they weren't drinking, assume they were sick.
Biggles is very clever in this and has a hilarious rant about the selfishness of fictional detectives who don't say what they know as soon as they know it, thereby causing others to die. I think he finds this particularly aggravating as he has an actual reason he can't reveal what he surmises, as there's an unknown saboteur who adjusts their actions to everything he does.
In an aerial battle, one of the pilots, who has been pushed to a complete breakdown by the situation, crashes his plane into a Japanese plane. No one is really sure if he did it on purpose or by accident, but Biggles seems to think it was deliberate. Johns does not note that this is an attack better-known by being done by the Japanese, and it may not have been at the time of writing; the book was published in 1944, and the first kamikaze attack was on October 25, 1944. Given the lag time between writing and publishing, I lean toward it being a coincidence. It's shocking and powerful, either way.
I also want to note that at one point Biggles gets attacked in his bedroom by a naked man covered in oil. It's so he can slither out of Biggles' grasp, but LOLOLOLOL.
In WWII, Biggles and his squadron are transported in deep secrecy, finally ending up on a base in India. There's an important supply route between India and China, but planes which fly it have been crashing inexplicably. There's no apparently sabotage, nor are they getting shot down as far as anyone can tell. At some point in a routine flight, they drop out of radio contact, fly erratically for a minute or so, then crash. So far there have been no survivors, and so many men and planes have been lost that the base is having a collective nervous breakdown, with men drinking heavily and generally coming undone.
Biggles proceeds to investigate this under incredibly tense circumstances in which he or his men are liable to die any time they fly the route, all the obvious checks have already been done, and he's now in charge of men who are already burned out and ready to throw their lives away just to get it over with.
The mystery plot is great, there's some good adventure scenes, and one of the aerial battles is among his best aerial battle sequences that I've read so far - it's terrifying, horrifying, and beautifully written.
Aaaaaand also there is a lot of racism. A LOT of racism. Though at one point Biggles tells his men not to call Indians "natives" because it's discourteous. JOHNS. You were so close!
Spoilers!
What's going on is that drugged candy is getting placed inside the planes, so when the pilots eat it en route, they get very high and then pass out. (It comes from official supplies, so it appears to be just part of their kit.) Cleverly, the high simulates extreme drunkenness, so on the occasion that a pilot takes it out of the plane and eats it on the ground, everyone assumes they're drunk. The victims themselves, if they weren't drinking, assume they were sick.
Biggles is very clever in this and has a hilarious rant about the selfishness of fictional detectives who don't say what they know as soon as they know it, thereby causing others to die. I think he finds this particularly aggravating as he has an actual reason he can't reveal what he surmises, as there's an unknown saboteur who adjusts their actions to everything he does.
In an aerial battle, one of the pilots, who has been pushed to a complete breakdown by the situation, crashes his plane into a Japanese plane. No one is really sure if he did it on purpose or by accident, but Biggles seems to think it was deliberate. Johns does not note that this is an attack better-known by being done by the Japanese, and it may not have been at the time of writing; the book was published in 1944, and the first kamikaze attack was on October 25, 1944. Given the lag time between writing and publishing, I lean toward it being a coincidence. It's shocking and powerful, either way.
I also want to note that at one point Biggles gets attacked in his bedroom by a naked man covered in oil. It's so he can slither out of Biggles' grasp, but LOLOLOLOL.