Books: Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire By Dan Hanks

"An ex-Spitfire pilot is dragged into a race against a shadowy government agency to unlock the secrets of the lost empire of Atlantis. In post-war 1952, the good guys are supposed to have won. But not everything is as it seems when ex-Spitfire pilot Captain Samantha Moxley is dragged into a fight against the shadowy US government agency she used to work for. Now, with former Nazis and otherworldly monsters on her trail, Captain Samantha Moxley is forced into protecting her archaeologist sister in a race to retrieve two ancient keys that will unlock the secrets of a long-lost empire - to ensure a civilization-destroying weapon doesn't fall into the wrong hands. But what will she have to sacrifice to save the world?

Much like S.A. Sidor’s The Institute for Singular Antiquities series, Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire plays off the same themes as the Indiana Jones, The Mummy, Hellboy, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow films have done for the last forty years. I enjoyed this book a bit more than Sidor’s, but they certainly have a lot of similarities. I was a bit surprised that author Dan Hanks opened the book in 1945 with the super secret government organization seeking out Sam Moxley, and then jump to 1952 and we hear only tidbits of her time with The Nine. I’m curious if a follow-up book (no cliffhanger, but it does set up a sequel) or prequel will deal with her seven years she spent with this clandestine establishment. Yes, hints are dropped throughout, but now I kind of want to hear that story.