Harry and Sara

After a rocky few months, Harry and Sara Harrigan are reunited in their marriage, more in love than before. But Harry has a problem-- his family company, Pattersons Industries, is being threatened by an American corporate predator, Buddy Harrison, who seems to be successfully wooing Harry's two aunts and co-owners of Pattersons. As well, Queensland is being devastated by a severe influenza epidemic and Harry and Sara are moving between Brisbane and their hometown, Elmsford, to look after family members. Harry receives word that Harrison is meeting the aunts to talk business. Harry hasn't received notice of any meeting and is determines to disrupt Harrisons' plans. He resolves to fly to Brisbane the next day but wakes to find Sara with the flu so reluctantly has to leave her. He successfully goads Harrison into an unfortunate remark about Sara and the aunts leave his restaurant table and assure Harry that Pattersons is safe. He speeds to the aerodrome to fly to Sara but is warned that the aircraft he has chartered is overdue for some servicing and there are no others because of the epidemic and staff shortages. He decides to risk it and as he takes off is warned of storms on his route. He avoids them but has to land at Burnsport, a city on the coast, to wait out a belt of storm cells coming his way. There he learns that Sara is seriously ill and he's determined to reach her. He is given clearance to fly to Monaldo, 100 miles west over the Great Dividing Range, and the nearest aerodrome to Elmsford. Well into his flight, however, he hits a storm cell followed by multiple bird-strikes, one nearly blinding him. When he can see again, he is heading for the ground, the plane uncontrollable. He shouts Sara's name as he braces for a crash in a rain-forest near a small river......

After a rocky few months in their marriage, Harry and Sara Harrigan are reunited and more in love than ever. But Harry has a problem. He is warned that an American corporate predator, Buddy Harrison, has designs on Harry's family company, Pattersons Industries, and is wooing Harry's two co-owners, his aunts Faye and Joyce. An influenza epidemic is raging through Queensland, Australia, and Harry and Sara are constantly on the move helping family members. Harry hears that his aunts have agreed to a meeting with Harrison in Brisbane and is determined to disrupt the meeting. He must fly to Brisbane but Sara is ill with flu and he reluctantly leaves her at Elmsford. He successfully goads Harrison into antagonizing his aunts and they assure him Pattersons is safe. He speeds to the aerodrome to fly to Sara but is warned that, due to the flu epidemic, the only charter aircraft available is overdue for service in some areas and he shouldn't fly. But he is desperate to get to Sara and takes off. In the air he is warned of severe storms along his route and eventually is forced to land at a coastal city, Burnsport, 100 miles west of his destination but across the Great Dividing Range. There he learns that Sara is seriously ill and impatiently waits out the expected storms. He is cleared to fly to Monaldo, the nearest strip to Elmsford, but runs into a storm cell which appears suddenly. His plane receives lightning strikes which disrupt the radio and the instruments. Just as he seems to have cleared the storm a bird strikes the windscreen hitting Harry in the face and nearly blinding him. Other bird-strikes batter the little Cessna and one hits the engine. He is in thick cloud and, by the time he can partly see he realizes the sputtering plane is headed for the ground. He shouts Sara's name as he braces for the impact of the crash. When news of Harry's disappearance reaches his home area a 100-strong search party is formed and they cross the Range to join the search. Because of rain there is little air search going on. The search authorities admit to Sara, now discharged from hospital and at Burnsport, that because of the storms, they have little idea where Harry has come down. Sara, certain that she'd know if Harry was dead, never lets up on the co-ordinators and her own friends, all of whom, after six days, are wavering in their belief that they can find him. Some are going home but a few others believe they've been looking for Harry in the wrong place and set out to search elsewhere.....

R L Humphries lives by the sea in Queensland, Australia, near the Great Barrier Reef. He was born nearby and trained as a newspaper reporter in a provincial city not far away. After completing his journalistic training he moved to a small country town to help in a family business and it was his five years there that gave him the material for the Harry series of books. After five years there he joined the biggest morning daily in Queensland as a reporter and sub-editor. Later he moved to Papua/New Guinea to work as a correspondent for Radio Australia. While there he covered some big international stories, including the search for Michael Rockefeller, son of Nelson Rockefeller, then governor of New York State and later Vice-President of the United States. He also covered the Indonesian invasion of Dutch West Papua and the eventual handing over of that country to Indonesia by the United Nations. After some years he was transferred to Brisbane for training to move to Singapore for Radio Australia, but resigned to take up an offer to join the Queensland State Government as an administrator. On his retirement he was chief administrator of the biggest department in the Government. He now spends his time writing and fishing.