Very slow to get going and everything seems to fall into place rather neatly for Kat. Quite a mystery to solve ,lots of secrets.

This one was an interesting story about solving a family mystery and thinking the people who made it possible for her to be born. By saving her father.

The Navigator’s Daughter was one I requested on a whim, unsure if I would like it or not, but boy am I glad I did. This was an excellent read. The protagonist Kat is given a task by her dying father to find a woman and her son who saved his and his crew’s lives during World War II. Kat travels to Hungary where her father was stationed during the war. Once there the mystery unravels and the actions begins. This story was well researched and kept my attention throughout.

Nancy Cole Silverman introduces us to Kat, the daughter of a WWII soldier who had to bail out of his B24 plane and was luckily rescued along with his crew by a woman and her son in the Hungarian resistance. As Steve her father is too ill with cancer to travel, Kat takes on the unusual request from her father and decides to travel in his place. She has never been out of the country before.

Timing is perfect for Kat who is unemployed, recently fired from her writing job, and her second marriage is in shambles. Her confidence is low, and she feels taking on this challenge will be good for her. The guide that will meet her at the airport is the one that found the plane.

I understand the story, but I found the entire book all too neatly wrapped up. Everything falls into place like magic which makes it trite and hard to believe. Walking down a street in a small city during a market day, Kat runs into the women that saved her father? Really that easy. She takes a boat trip, and the gypsy tells her things that are going to happen and becomes her willing accomplice to discover more things about her father and the people she is staying with. She ends up paying him small sums of money to take her places and together they thwart an art heist she unknowingly got caught up in. There are many examples of her finding paths easily, to hidden treasures and all her helpers have extraordinarily good memories of the past. really….

I just could not buy it. Kat makes it back home in time to talk to her dad and tells him some surprising news. Having read about Hungary during the war Silverman does put some historical facts to good use, but over all this book did not work for me.

What a joy this book was to read. So full of factual details, scenery and history. It is hard to believe this is fiction, when everything is so real and true to life. A wonderful novel, well written with remarkable characters. Katriona the protagonist of the story travels out to Hungary at her father’s request to locate two individuals who hid him from the Germans when his plane was shot down during WW2. Well, that was what he led her to believe, but it was also for her to meet the brother never knew. Katriona was resourceful and tenacious in her uncovering of an even deeper side to the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Level Best Books for this advance copy.

This was such a warm story showing love between father and daughter but mystery abounds when Kat sets off to Hungary to search for her dying fathers history. Kat was so easy to understand and to like and she was such a determined, feisty young lady that I just liked her lots. What made it extra special was that it was based upon a true story. Great read.

A WWII navigator sends his daughter to Hungary when he is notified that his bomber, shot down in 1945, has been found. Kat doesn’t want to go. She’s sure this is a scam. Sandor, who contacted her dad and serves as her tour guide, is surely up to something. He lodges her in the home of his friends, Miklos and Nora. Nora repeatedly searches Kat’s belongings, making no effort to be stealthful. Her dad wants her to find Katarina and her son Adolf, who saved him and his crewmen from capture. Sandor doesn’t seem to want her to locate the old woman. Why?
I didn’t like Kat. She explains her skepticism as a result of being a reporter, but her attitude gets old fast. The story picks up when she meets Adrian, a gypsy who is more obliging in helping her find answers, for a price. When Sandor’s wife Aanika takes Kat to the town where Katarina may live if she’s still alive, Kat wins my approval by outmaneuvering Aanika’s efforts to keep her from finding Katarina. Interesting look at Hungary during the war and under the Communists. This sounds like the beginning of a series of Kat Lawson mysteries. Hopefully, Kat has a better attitude in coming books.

Kat Lawson is a great character, and I can’t to read more of her adventures. This story was about love and how fleeting and heartbreaking it can be. The relationship between Kat and her father brought me to tears. I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.

Calling all historical fiction lovers! PLEASE don’t miss out on this fantastic story!

I absolutely love it when a book checks all the boxes for me:

✅ WW2
✅ Art theft
✅ Family drama
✅ Family secrets
✅ Mystery
✅ Plucky heroines
✅ European setting
✅ Inspired by true events
✅ Drives me to research further

I love to know the inspiration behind an author’s story. This one has an incredible background. The author was sorting through her father’s photos after he passed and came across a photo of his crew. Her father was a navigator/bombardier and they were shot down over Hungary on their 13th mission. After the Iron Curtain fell, her father received a letter from a man who claimed to have found her dad’s plane. When he extended an invitation to come to Hungary and see it, the navigator’s daughter started thinking…what if?

The seed for this book was planted.

Kat Lawson is the navigator’s daughter in this story and her father has a dying wish that she travel to Hungary and see if the recently discovered plane wreckage from WW2 is really his downed B-24 plane. He also wants her to locate the woman and her son who rescued and hid him from the Nazis. Will following his wishes help put closure on her father’s experience or will it open up old wounds and create new ones?

I read this in an entire afternoon because it was so compelling! I told myself I’d read one chapter to see if it was interesting…and only put it down to eat dinner. I’ve never wanted a sequel so badly as I need this one and am so very excited to have found a series that’s such a good fit for my tastes.

Do you believe coincidence is nothing more than happenstance? Or do you think it’s fate?

I was gifted this advance copy by Nancy Cole Silverman, Level Best Books, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.