Smuggler. Smoker. Aviatrix. Thief. The dynamic Roxy Loewen is all these things and more, in this riveting and gorgeous historical fiction novel for readers of Paula McLain, Roberta Rich, Kate Morton and Jacqueline Winspear.

You should never fall in love with a flyer. You should only fall in love with flight.

That's what Roxy Loewen always thought, until she falls for fellow pilot Jocco Zomack as they run guns into Ethiopia. Jocco may be a godless commie, but his father is a leading art dealer and he's found the original of Bruegel's famous painting, the Fall of Icarus. The trouble is, it's in Spain, a country slipping fast into civil war. The money's better than good—if Roxy can just get the painting to Berlin and back out again before Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring and his Nazi pals get their hands on it . . .

But this is 1936, and Hitler's Olympics are in full swing. Not only that, but Göring has teamed up with Roxy's greatest enemy: Sydney Munroe, an American billionaire responsible for the death of her beloved dad seven years before. When the Nazis steal the painting, Roxy and Jocco decide that they are just going to have to steal it back.

What happens when Icarus flies too close to the sun? Roxy is going to find out. From African skies to a cellar in Madrid, from the shadow cast by the swastika to the world above the clouds on the Hindenburg's last voyage, in the end Roxy will have just two choices left—but only one bullet.

C.C. Humphreys was born in Toronto, Canada and grew up in Los Angeles and London. A third-generation actor and writer, his roles have included Hamlet and the gladiator Caleb in A.D. Anno Domini. His plays have been produced in the UK and Canada. A schoolboy fencing champion and fight choreographer, he has turned his love of swashbuckling towards historical fiction. He is married and lives in London.

C.C. Humphreys' profile page

National Bestseller

"[Chasing the Wind is an] exhilarating adventure. . . . This fast-paced tale is heavy on colourful plot points and evocative scenes from history books. . . . Ideal for summer cabin-, ferry- and beach-R&R. Plus, the 'strong female lead' we find in Roxy? Total on trend." —Vancouver Sun

"A barrel-rolling barn-burner of a book! Roxy's got a tender heart with a steel jacket, and the skill and courage to bring her in on a wing and a prayer. A good thing, because this girl doesn't pack a parachute." —Diana Gabaldon

"Chasing the Wind has everything a historical fiction reader could want. The suspense is wonderful; the writing is sure and confident; and the dialogue is witty and fast paced. I was completely engrossed from the very beginning." —Roberta Rich, author of The Midwife of Venice

"Flying on the wings of Humphreys's vivid imagination, spunky aviatrix Roxy Loewen soars from Ethiopia to Madrid as the Spanish Civil War rages, and to Berlin and Hitler's Olympics, where she contends against the Nazi elite in a struggle to retrieve a stolen sixteenth century painting. A hold-on-to-your-seats aerial display with the throttle open all the way." —William Deverell, author of the Arthur Beauchamp series