THE MAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY
The Man Who Fell from the Sky is the true story of the quest to solve the most tantalizing
aviation mystery of all time - and a vivid portrait of a high-flying international
tycoon's life in the Roaring Twenties.
On July 4, 1928, a Fokker trimotor took off from London, bound for Brussels. On
board were the plane's owner, Alfred Loewenstein, a financier of immense wealth and
influence; a pilot and co-pilot; a valet; a male secretary, and two female stenographers.
The aircraft never reached Brussels. Instead, it landed on the Normandy coast, where
the crew told French authorities that Loewenstein had accidentally fallen from the
plane into the English Channel. A hastily-held inquest ruled that Loewenstein's
death was probably accidental, and although the case made international headlines,
there the matter has stood - until this book.
Was Alfred Loewenstein murdered? Investigative author William Norris went on an
international odyssey to establish the impossibility of Loewenstein's death being
anything but murder. He interviewed every survivor with any recollection of Loewenstein
and delved in exhaustive detail into his barefaced financial manipulations - sharp
dealings that left him with ample enemies (and suspects). He has unearthed fascinating
details about Loewenstein's gaudy lifestyle - his incredible retinue of servants,
his racing stable, his eight villas in Biarritz, and his fantastic fox-hunting weekends
where the best of British society milked this Catholic/Jewish outsider for stock
tips (and snubbed him everywhere else). He has traced the suspiciously prosperous
later lives of the Fokker's other occupants - and established the mechanical means
whereby the murder could have been committed, and the multi-million dollar motive
which lay behind it.
The book's double-layered narrative of the life and death of Loewenstein and the
author's search for the truth behind his demise involve the reader with gripping
immediacy in a saga of high-rolling greed and a shocking cover-up. The Man Who
Fell from the Sky is a unique crime story, with the tantalizing spell of the most
cunning mystery fiction.
To read the first few pages of The Man Who Fell from the Sky, click here.
"An exceptionally good example of what an author can do when he puts his nose on
the trail of a great murder story. Authors make great detectives. Norris is at
the top of his class." - Sidney Kirkpatrick, author of A Cost of Killers.
"A fascinating and well-researched investigation into one of the twentieth century's
most intriguing mysteries." - Robin Bruce Lockhart, author of Reilly: Ace of Spies.
"A gripping murder mystery which - like all the best stories - is true." - Robert
Lacey, author of Ford: The Men and the Machine."
The Man Who Fell from the Sky is available in paperback and e-book formats from:
www.synergebooks.com
OTHER BOOKS BY WILLIAM NORRIS
