Airman is set in the 1890's on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. It is the story of Conor Broekhart, a young Saltee Islander whose father, Declan, is the King's bodyguard. When Conor discovers that the power hungry Marshall Hugo Bonvilain is organizing a military coup, the king is murdered and Conor is blamed for the crime and thrown into prison.

In prison, Conor passes the solitary months by scratching designs for flying machines into the walls. This has always been his dream, to win the race for flight. After two years, Conor now sixteen, plans and executes a daring escape to the mainland. Initially he plans to return home, but realizes that this would put his entire family in danger, so instead he builds a glider to fly to the prison island and reclaim the diamonds he buried there from the prison mine. Eight bags of diamonds, means eight trips. Conor's father is beginning to question Bonvilain's rule, and so the marshall decides to use his son to blackmail him. This is when he realizes that Conor has escaped. He also finds Conor's drawings and realizes that he is the mysterious Airman who has been flying around the prison island. Bonvilain arrests Conor's whole family to trap him. To save them, Conor will have to build the flying machine that he has been dreaming of all these years.

"While the often dark and gruesome subject matter is not for the faint of heart, the moral underpinnings of the story are solid." School Library Journal

The bestselling creator of the Artemis Fowl series returns with a new adventure set in the 1890s. Thrown into prison for a murder he didn't commit, Conor Broekhart passes the time scratching designs for a flying machine onto the walls of his cell. After two years, Conor is finally able to build a glider and executes a daring escape to the mainland.

Conor Broekhart was born to fly. In fact, legend has it that he was born flying in a hot air balloon at the world's fair.

In the 1890's Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king's daughter, Princess Isabella.

But the boy's idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king. When Conor tries to expose the plot, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions.

There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So he passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines into the prison walls. The months turn into years, but eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies.

Eoin Colfer is the New York Times bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series, Half Moon Investigations, The Wish List, and The Supernaturalist. Listen to all of these on audio from Listening Library. Eoin is also the author of Eoin Colfer's Legend of...books, Benny and Omar and Benny and Babe. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children. Visit his website at www.eoincolfer.com