Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Wrong Side of the Sky” as Want to Read:

The Wrong Side of the Sky

by
Gavin Lyall

Other editions

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Wrong Side of the Sky

Gavin Lyall

4.06 · Rating details · 150 ratings · 12 reviews

A chance encounter in an Athens bar with war-time flying buddy sets Jack Clay on the trail of the Nawab of Tungabhadra's missing fortune, hi-jacked out of India years before at the time of partition.Maybe there would be nothing much in it for him at the end of the day, but it sure beat the hell out of growing old and obsolete together with the dilapidated Dakota in which h ...more

Get A Copy

ebook

Published January 7th 2013 by Bloomsbury Reader (first published 1961)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Wrong Side of the Sky, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about The Wrong Side of the Sky

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.06 ·

Rating details

· 150 ratings · 12 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Wrong Side of the Sky

Feb 22, 2018 David Evans rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thrillers

Former RAF pilot, Gavin Lyall’s first novel is a thriller focussing on jobbing pilot (write what you know), the morally ambiguous Jack Clay, who plies his trade around the Mediterranean flying a clapped out 17 year old Dakota, the airborne equivalent of a tramp steamer. He’s world weary and seems to have lost the ambition to better himself and fly for one of the big airlines. Running into an old but more successful friend and colleague in an Athens hotel bar Jack takes an opportunity to ferry a ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2013 Eldon.shirkley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is one of my favourite thrillers and I have just finished reading it again. In the book one of the characters says to the pilot after a particularly skilful landing, "I'd forgotton about you. You do forget about people". Well, I had forgotten just how terrific a writer Gavin Lyall was. He had done National Service as a pilot in the RAF and it shows in his knowledgeable writing. The tough characters, exotic locations (Greece and Lybia), technical flying details, and top-class writing make fo ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 15, 2020 Igenlode Wordsmith rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

There is an inevitable betrayal at the end of the book, but it's not the one I was expecting it to be, which left an unexpected sense of grateful relief.

I was hooked by the level of aviation detail in the first Gavin Lyall novel I picked up, entirely by chance (I was astonished to discover later that he was married to the author of my invaluable "Cooking in a Bedsitter", and in fact was almost certainly responsible for the 'male' chapter in that!) This one is another novel about pilots and flyin There is an inevitable betrayal at the end of the book, but it's not the one I was expecting it to be, which left an unexpected sense of grateful relief.

I was hooked by the level of aviation detail in the first Gavin Lyall novel I picked up, entirely by chance (I was astonished to discover later that he was married to the author of my invaluable "Cooking in a Bedsitter", and in fact was almost certainly responsible for the 'male' chapter in that!) This one is another novel about pilots and flying in which the abilities of an aircraft are intrinsic to the plot (the high-mounted 'pusher' propeller of the Nawab's personal luxury plane is mentioned casually as a distinctive feature at the start, then ends up contributing to the fate of several characters who aren't expecting this non-standard layout!)

It's a hardboiled thriller about greed and betrayal and the aftermath of war, with a lot of effective twists; the protagonist starts off by refusing to run guns on principle, then consciously takes on a dodgy cargo for reasons that we don't understand until later. It turns out to be even dodgier than we (though not he) expected. From a technical point of view, the book has a very skilful use of a first-person narrative that manages to conceal a great deal from the reader without being openly unreliable; it exists almost entirely in the present, without making the protagonist's backstory (which of course he takes for granted) or his future plans explicit until the time comes.

Jack Clay is a flawed hero; we want him to do the right thing, but we also want him to win, which sets up an effective tension. And the revelation of exactly what lies in his and Ken's past, when it comes, is unexpected and brutally simple.

Any thriller from my point of view, whether Dick Francis or Modesty Blaise, scores in its use of details, and Lyall's books have this in spades. From the finer points of radio direction finding (radio telephone versus wireless (Morse) transmissions) to the interior of a Libyan oasis, we feel that the author knows everything he is talking about. Nowadays, of course, the 'period' setting also has its interest! ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 14, 2012 Sam Reaves rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Another old favorite. Lyall served in the RAF, and several of his early thrillers involve aviation themes. This one's about a cargo pilot in the eastern Mediterranean in the early '60's, looking for a chance to score big with some jewels that went missing in India in the turbulence at partition. The action moves from Athens to Tripoli (Libya) and beyond. Classic adventure of a type they don't write any more ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 01, 2020 Jeff James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Thrills par excellence

A fast paced post WW2 gun running thriller centered around hairy escapades flying a clapped out DC3 across the Med. Great aeronautical input and sardonic ex RAF hero

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Apr 22, 2020 meltem rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: in-english

(view spoiler) ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 04, 2021 Robert Hart rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My favourite of all Gavin Lyall's books - and the first one I read, many decades ago.

The protagonist, Jack Clay, flies a battered DC3 around the Mediterranean sea for a small cargo charter company. The other, Ken Kitson, is a wartime friend now the personal pilot for the Nawab of Tungabhadra, in Pakisitan. The story revolves around an ammunition box of jewelry that went missing during the partition of India in 1947 and the two pilot's attempts to find it for themselves.

The flying sequences are v ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 15, 2019 Robert Mcknight rated it really liked it · review of another edition

typical Gavin Lyall. Technical items correct and interesting story

flag Like · see review

Mar 04, 2014 Susan Ferguson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014, fiction, nook-owned

I enjoyed this book. I like the writing style. The writing is crisp, lots of twists. Jack Clay is a pilot for a carrier firm that hauls passengers and freight.Hhe is at the airport in Athens with his co-pilot Rogers, a young pilot with not enough experience as far as Jack is concerned. He is working on his plane because water got in the fuel at a Turkish airport. While he is working he sees a plane come in and knows from the landing, exceptionally good, that it's an old buddy of his. He and Ken I enjoyed this book. I like the writing style. The writing is crisp, lots of twists. Jack Clay is a pilot for a carrier firm that hauls passengers and freight.Hhe is at the airport in Athens with his co-pilot Rogers, a young pilot with not enough experience as far as Jack is concerned. He is working on his plane because water got in the fuel at a Turkish airport. While he is working he sees a plane come in and knows from the landing, exceptionally good, that it's an old buddy of his. He and Ken Kitson have a past hauling people and planes during the partition of Pakistan - which has caused them to give up their citizenship and get pilot's licenses in other countries. It's a bit of a mystery at first. Clay checks with their shipping agent in Athens and gets a cargo he doesn't want. He refuses to take it. Then, later he changes his mind. There is something going on that Kitson knows about on some jewels stolen from a Nawab in Pakistan about ten years ago. Some of the jewelry has turned up and the Nawab and his bodyguard have traced the source to Athens.
Captain Clay takes his oil rig parts to the villae he's supposed to, but is suspicious about his cargo. On the way, he stops to take on fuel and dumps his co-pilot and the man riding with the cargo. He opens the cargo and discovers jewelry in one of the crates with rusted out rifles. So, he makes his own arrangements - and nearly gets killed pulling it off. His pal, Kitson has taken off in his boss' plane and likely crashed it just off a small island - all they can find is some wreckage. But a resident mentions another plane that crash-landed on a small island close by many years ago. Clay looks over the place where the plane is, with the trees grown up around it. He decides there is something special about this plane crash. He begins to connect it with the theft of the jewels as does the Nawab although everyone says the pilot left the island when he was able to after the crash.
The Nawab wants the rest of his treasure that was stolen back (even though it's just a fraction of his wealth, a million and a half pounds worth - English money); he doesn't like to lose things. He is reluctant to pay a reward. Clay has his suspicions of a lot of things and begins thinking real hard, but not saying anything to anyone.
There are a lot more complications than this - but I do like the style of the writer. I was not expecting this and was very pleased to have discovered this writer. ...more

flag Like · see review

May 02, 2010 Samantha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Typical Gavin Lyall adventure/thriller.

flag Like · see review

Feb 25, 2014 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014, 2016, 2020

Really reminded me of East of Desolation...guess what I'll be reading next? ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 12, 2014 James M rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-war2

An ex-RAF pilot gets caught in a global race to find missing jewels.

flag Like · see review

Mark rated it really liked it
Jun 17, 2015

Esco Griffe rated it it was amazing
Feb 17, 2018

Trevelyanwright rated it liked it
May 03, 2014

Dan rated it it was amazing
Nov 18, 2011

Mark rated it really liked it
Apr 19, 2020

Simon rated it really liked it
Jul 23, 2019

Scott Wilson rated it really liked it
Apr 15, 2014

Peter Czaykowski rated it it was amazing
Apr 12, 2016

Michael Hargreave Mawson rated it it was amazing
Jan 25, 2013

Victor rated it it was amazing
Jul 17, 2012

James Gillett rated it liked it
May 22, 2015

Tony rated it really liked it
Mar 01, 2020

Ken Cooper rated it it was amazing
Nov 08, 2013

Richard Ingleson rated it it was amazing
Oct 02, 2019

Vierblij rated it liked it
Aug 14, 2015

Noel Charchuk rated it really liked it
May 16, 2019

Simon rated it it was amazing
Feb 05, 2015

Josh rated it really liked it
Oct 21, 2018

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Thriller

8 users

Adventure

3 users

Fiction

2 users

See top shelves…

About Gavin Lyall

Gavin Lyall

16 followers

Gavin was born and educated in Birmingham. For two years he served as a RAF pilot before going up to Cambridge, where he edited Varsity, the university newspaper. After working for Picture Post, the Sunday Graphic and the BBC, he began his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky, published in 1961. After four years as Air Correspondent to the Sunday Times, he resigned to write books full time. He w ...more