Thorpe becomes increasingly fixated on confronting his past, endeavouring to write a book about this two-man mission to steal Germany’s superior fighter plane, the Focke-Wulf 190.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, as the infamous Wall is being dismantled, Johanna Schreib comes across one of her grandfather’s wartime photographs of an FW.190 – a clue to his hidden past. The emotionally fragile Johanna has a need to know more, but Erich Schreib refuses to cooperate.
Airthief interweaves Thorpe’s struggle with his fragmenting mind and Johanna’s quest to uncover her family secrets. From opposite sides of the Channel, they stitch this history together, and as the revelations threaten to engulf both families, Johanna journeys to England to uncover the truth – ultimately bringing the two old foes together and laying to rest the ghost of Spitfire JK187.
Michael Kearns was born on the Canadian prairies. At age nineteen, he travelled to Europe and ended up in Oxford. After having been introduced to classical music and an important violin collection he enrolled at the Newark School of Violin Making and some years later set up Oxford Violins. Other interests include writing, painting, filmmaking and classic car restoration.