Dan Verner
On the Wings of Angels continues the saga of Otto Kerchner, the airplane-loving Wisconsin farm boy who becomes a reluctant hero during World War II in On Wings of the Morning (Book One) and continues, with his family, friends and community, to try new ventures and as a result sometimes falls into danger in On the Wings of Eagles (Book Two).
Angels picks up in 1954 and includes the acquisition of a losing minor league baseball team, threats from Minneapolis mobsters, Otto at the controls of a Soviet MiG, deep and troubling family discord after a sudden death, initiating an aviation camp, a terrifying kidnapping and a marauding bear as the Kerchners, and the good folks of Pioneer Lake learn to cope with an increasingly complex and changing world.
Readers of earlier novels in the series praise their easy style and realistic detail which recreate the ambiance and feel of those remembered years, including the simple pleasures of picnics, birthday parties and pick-up baseball games. The characters are at once unique and identifiable, and their hopes, fears and struggles still resonate today. This way of life has vanished, and we can only experience it vicariously through books like this.