Nation: Will the Real Amelia . . .

One of the 20th century's more resilient mysteries is the disappearance of Flyer Amelia Earhart in 1937 in the South Pacific near the end of a round-the-world flight. Almost the only claim not made by theorists over the years was that she was alive, well and living in New Jersey.

That omission was rectified last week with the publication of Amelia Earhart Lives (McGraw-Hill; $7.95). In the book, Novelist Joe Klaas traces the ten-year pursuit of an idée fixe by Joseph Gervais, a former Air Force major. Amelia, they say, was really on a spy...