Book excerpt: African Sky by Tony Park, the author of Red Earth, is a full-throttle historical thriller that will engross fans of Clive Cussler. Rhodesia, 1943. A nation at war. Paul Bryant hasn't been able to get back in a plane since a fatal bombing mission over Germany. So, instead, the Squadron Leader is flying a desk at a pilot training school at Kumalo air base. But one of his trainees has just been reported missing. Pip Lovejoy, a volunteer policewoman, is also trying to suppress painful memories. When Felicity Langham, a high profile WAAF from the air base, is found raped and murdered, Pip and Bryant's paths cross. Suspicion immediately falls on the local black community, but Pip's investigations unearth a link between the Squadron Leader, the controversial heiress Catherine De Beers and the dead woman, which throws the case in a new, disturbing direction. What Pip thinks is a singular crime of passion soon escalates into a crisis that could change the course of the war.