A Man of His Times

By Patrick O'Sullivan

A Man of His Times

 

Read the pulp-inspired story Publishers Weekly called, "a delightful World War II romp."

 

Things turn from bad to worse when the aircraft carrying war correspondent Preston Hall develops engine trouble over a mysterious South Pacific island.

 

Hall must face danger after danger in a headlong race to survival, all while untangling a hidden plot that could shift the balance of power in the Pacific and alter the course of the Second World War.

 

Fans of vintage adventure may find Preston Hall just their sort of poison.

 

This story originally appeared in "Fiction River: Pulse Pounders".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dunkerron Press
• Release date: Oct 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781625600141

Patrick O'Sullivan

PATRICK O'SULLIVAN was the OHL and CHL rookie of the year in 2002 and the AHL rookie of the year in 2005. He remains the all-time leader in games, goals, assists and points for the Mississauga/Niagara franchise in the OHL. He played 334 games over eight seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL. He played in three World Junior Championships and is all-time second in games played for the USA in tournament history. He scored the gold-medal winning goal for the United States team at the world junior championships in 2004, the first gold medal in the team's history. The 30-year-old now lives in southwest Florida with his wife and two sons. GARE JOYCE is a senior writer for Sportsnet Magazine. A former writer for ESPN: The Magazine and The Globe and Mail, Joyce has won four Canadian national magazine awards and been a finalist 21 times. He is author of seven books of sports non-fiction, including When the Lights Went Out, Future Greats and Heartbreaks and The Devil and Bobby Hull. Under the nom de plume G.B. Joyce, he has written two mystery novels, The Code and The Black Ace.

Book preview

1

Preston Hall was still thinking about O'Casey's wisecrack when the Lockheed Electra 10E began to taxi down the runway. There were only two other passengers, a missionary in a black suit and white dog collar, and a dame, not a doll, sporting a stale pre-war get-up and a fresh black eye. He was still thinking about O'Casey as he stared at the empty waters of the Pacific, searching the sky for Zeroes, searching the waves for periscope wakes.

They leveled off at 10,000 feet and Preston closed his eyes and settled in. He imagined a hundred ways he could make O'Casey pay. A hundred ways, and all of them a surprise. To O'Casey.

He was still hating O'Casey when the starboard engine sputtered.

Preston cracked an eyelid.

It was probably nothing. A bubble in the fuel line.

He watched the propeller spin. He listened to the engine rumble. The engines were running a little rich. That was all.

Preston closed his eyes.

The engine coughed.

He opened his eyes.

The engine lit.

He was watching this time when the monster radial spit up a ball of black exhaust, oily and slick with unburned fuel.

Bad magneto, Preston was thinking, when the engine coughed again.

And died.

The plane yawed toward the dead engine.

They were losing airspeed.

They were going to stall.

Preston belted in.

The pilot dropped the powered wing, side slipping and pointing the nose down to gain speed and control. The plane pitched in the fierce crosswind, wings shivering, engine howling. The lone propeller clawed at the sky, refusing to surrender.

Once his pulse settled Preston stared out the window at the lifeless motor, and the feathering propeller, and the wide empty sky between Preston Hall and Port Moresby, New Guinea. Preston figured they'd descended to 5,000 feet before the plane had leveled out.

The missionary scraped the strumpet off his lap and told her