Thanks to NetGalley and National Geographic [the publisher] for an eARC of Lost: Amerlia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life by Rachel Hartigan, with an expected publication date in March of 2026, in return for an honest review.

I have never been obsessed with the mystery of Earhart’s disappearance, but have been intrigued over the years at the periodic articles about the latest theory/discovery concerning her disappearance. She has become a figure of adulation and the center of a number of conspiracy theories. Was she a spy for the US in the years leading up to the war against Japan in WWII. Was she a Japanese spy, whose disappearance allowed her to go to Japan and become Tokyo Rose during the war? These are just two of the conspiracies covered in Hartigan’s fascinating book. While not a predominant theme, the author explores the role of conspiracy thought in American history.

The author was a journalist working for National Geographic, and participated in a couple expeditions to the Pacific in attempts to locate the remains of Earhart’s plane or even her remains. The book alternates between Earhart’s biography and an exploration of what went wrong on her last flight. Hartigan does a good job of laying out the various theories behind many of the attempts to locate her. [Some my find too much detail, but the detail is necessary to explain why the explorers searched where they did.] Despite her own role in the search, the author remains in the background, giving the reader enough to understand her experience and interest in the topic. I have not read any other biographies of Earhart, but Lost provides an excellent exposition of her life.

Reading Lost you get a sense of the adulation that continues around Earhart, in part as a feminist icon. Last time that I looked, Goodreads lists almost 1,000 entries with her as a subject, many of them for children. I recommend this book, especially for those interested in biographies, history [the history of the early days of aviation], or an exploration of conspiracy thinking.

88/89 years after Amelia Earhart & her navigator went missing in The Electra, we still have more questions than answers. This trailblazer in aviation & the search for her remains is something known around the world.

The author who represented National Geographic on this 2023 expedition explores any & all possibilities from the past through current times The pages detail not only the gripping flight plan that Earhart took in 1937, but also how much expense & time has been expended trying to solve this mystery.

Amelia Earhart’s name is known around this globe no matter where it takes you & this book will have you referring to your atlas or map apps searching the many countries, islands & bodies of water mentioned.

My Father was a pilot so I grew up hearing about Amelia Earhart, but this particular book discusses the extent that was put into searching from July of 1937 until recently. Amelia Earhart flew to faraway destinations so getting there even now is extremely expensive. If successful in financing a search, once there the terrain or waters prohibit vs assist.

What I did not know & enjoyed learning was more about how Amelia was well-educated and a supporter of the early women’s rights movement in the US. It included her upbringing in Kansas, her marriage/relationships with men & the enormous profit that the flight around the world in 1937 was supposed to net. She went missing, but the financial debt of this endeavor remained with her Husband, George Putnam.

I’ll let the reader find out more, but I live not far from St. Petersburg, Florida. I forgot the very believable girl, Betty Klenck, there (15 years old) who lived a long life & was convinced she had shortwave radio contact with Amelia shortly after she went missing in 1937. I went on a deep dive on the SS Norwich City after that chapter!

The author is currently with National Geographic, but has been an editor with The Washington Post and US News & World Report. Hers is a book that will entertain & educate not only on aviation in its earliest years, but also on how much expense goes into these search party expeditions. While the public may yearn to know, I never weighed how much grief the Families felt when Amelia’s soul is never left at peace.

I thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have been intrigued by Amelia Earhart for a long time. She was a a pioneer in so many ways and her life is fascinating. I have always lamented that people today seem to be more intrigued by her disappearance than by the rich and interesting life that she lived. So books concerning her disappearance don’t usually strike my fancy. But since this book was published by National Geographic, whom I respect, I decided to give it a try. I found the book rather compelling. Reading of Amelia’s last day was heartbreaking, as always, And the three theories concerning her final moments were interesting and thought provoking. I disagree with the author though, that, had Amelia lived, she would have been forgotten by our modern world. I think her accomplishments in her first forty years speak of the amazing things she might have given us if she had only completed that flight so long ago.

3.5 ⭐

What is it about Amelia Earhart and her missing plane that fascinates us all?

Author Rachel Hartigan shares how hopes were escalated in 2019 when an underwater vehicle discovered an object at 4800m below sea level just off the coast of the “island of Nikumaroro, an uninhabited coral atoll just shy of the equator” where Earhart and Noonan’s Lockheed Electra 10e was said to have likely disappeared in 1937.

She shares about the limitations of the sonar imaging used to locate the wreck, checking the dimensions of the object to see if they match those of the Electra, that researchers still claim the wreck is roughly on Earhart’s flight route and will send equipment down to the site again, and that there are claims the two may have been captured and killed in Saipan, Japan, by a firing squad. Each theory is discussed and questions are raised. I didn’t feel like anything was too technical and I felt that the information was reliable. I’ll admit to being as frustrated looking for answers when I finished the book as before I started.

Part biography, part a search for answers, this book will appeal to those who've been curious about the disappearance and those who recall hearing about a possible discovery.

Hartigan asks a thought-provoking question:
“Amelia’s closest relatives endured the unresolved nature of her death and their grief for the rest of their days. Why can’t we?”

I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and here's my review:
In short, I LOVED IT! I stayed up late to finish because I was so enthralled. I loved the different timelines and how the author wove them together. There is so much documented about Amelia Earhart's life, and I felt like I did get the whole story. I found the differing theories of what happened intriguing; the only one I had ever really heard was that she ended up on the tiny island with no means of contacting the outside world.
The discussions of searching the ocean around those islands made me want a "Drain the Oceans" episode dedicated to the search!
I do plan to buy this book when it becomes available in print, and I would recommend it to those who enjoy nonfiction that includes an exciting narrative.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This book mixes two stories: Amelia’s and modern attempts to find her plane. What was revealed about Amelia’s life shows a complicated heroine who broke records and got America’s young girls to dream bigger about themselves. At the same time, she crudely described people from other lands and celebrated colonialism. Once again proving the point that you should never find out too much about your heroes.

Yes, the author is right that Amelia probably would have faded out of the public consciousness if she’d survived her last flight. But she didn’t, so there’s really no point in dwelling upon that narrative. Instead, she stubbornly moved forward every step of the way and, unfortunately, made a few mistakes that probably killed her. Perhaps we’re so invested in this story because any of us could have done the same thing.

Ultimately, the book serves as a testament to humanity’s continual search in the face of enormous odds. Amelia died in much the same way. Despite knowing she wouldn’t be found, it was disappointing somehow that this book didn’t somehow include her plane’s unveiling.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

read if you like:
📖 non-fiction
✈️ Amelia Earhart
🤷🏻‍♀️ missing people

summary:
I’ve always been fascinated by Amelia Earhart since I was little. I mean really — how does someone just disappear? This combined with my love of female heroines made this the perfect book to preview. This story follows National Geographic reporter Rachel Hartigan on her search around the world for the true story behind Amelia Earhart, as she explores three of the most common theories of her disappearance. Alternating between the story of her life and the details behind these theories, the reader learns more about who Amelia was, what led her to her record-breaking trip, and the mystique behind her legacy.

As someone who hasn’t read a lot about these theories, Hartigan does an excellent job of digging into the details behind them. It’s hard to believe how far fetched some of them were and still are, but she investigates each of them, along with the evidence and research that followed to refute them. The depth of her investigation is impressive, and sadly proves that many of these theories are honestly, unprovable. While the author might go into a little too much detail for the average reader, it would be perfect for any Amelia Earhart fan who wants the complete story.

Thanks to National Geographic and NetGalley for the advanced copy. If you too are fascinated by this mystery, check this out book out when it releases on March 3, 2026.

Lost: Amelia Earhart's Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life by Rachel Hartigan doesn't solve the mystery of what happened to the acclaimed pilot who went missing during the Pacific leg of a transcontinental flight in 1937, but it does provide the reader with two different narratives to tell the story.

The first narrative is a semi-biography of Earhart, which is quite interesting. She grew up with an alcoholic father who could never seem to get his life together, a mother she ended up supporting as she became an adult, and a younger sister who by all accounts worshiped Amelia. Chapters discuss how she became interested in flying and aeronautics, and her many attempts to set various records as the world's leading female pilot. There are a lot of interesting aspects to her life that I had never heard of before, so this part of the book was very interesting to me.

The second narrative deconstructs the three main theories of Earhart's disappearance. These theories will not be recounted here, as they are quire detailed and involve many different time periods, people, and findings that still don't explain the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. The author was involved as part of the investigation of one of these theories funded in part by National Geographic. This section is particularly interesting as the author relates her experience on searching for the plane that carried the pilot or the remains (bones) of the two lost souls.

I learned a lot about Earhart and her family, and the many people who have searched to try and understand what happened. We will probably never know exactly where the plane crashed. Earhart remains a tragic heroine in aviation history, and the mystery of her death will likely continue to spawn new initiatives to find answers.

In terms of rating I give the book 5 stars.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC in exchange for an objective review.

As one of the many obsessed with Amelia Earhart, I really appreciated the way this book sorted through the three main theories concerning her disappearance, and went through the supporting research in more detail than it is easily found online. Interspersed with vignettes from her life, I found the book wonderful to read. I’m even a little jealous that the author was able to participate, through National Geographic, in several of the expeditions to Nikumaroro. Thanks to NetGalley and National Geographic for the advance read!

Lost
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of Lost. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, National Geographic, for this opportunity.

In Lost, the life and legend of Amelia Earhart are brought vividly to the page in a narrative that balances meticulous historical biography with the suspense and intrigue of one of the world’s most enduring aviation mysteries. Author Rachel Hartigan, a former National Geographic reporter, creates a novel that is both tribute to Earhart’s trailblazing legacy and a deep dive into the decades-long search for her final resting place. In doing so, she is able to expertly craft a book that is both informative and captivating.

Lost paints a rich and nuanced portrait of Earhart as not just as the leather-jacketed aviatrix of popular imagination but as a determined, intelligent, and groundbreaking figure in both aviation and women’s history. From her early days growing up in Kansas to her record-setting flights across oceans and continents, Lost traces Earhart’s journey with detail and clarity. Hartigan avoids hagiography, offering instead a balanced portrayal that highlights both her remarkable achievements and the challenges she faced, personally and professionally.

But Lost doesn’t end with her last takeoff. Instead, it uses that moment—her disappearance over the Pacific in 1937—as a pivot into a gripping exploration of the many missions, theories, and obsessions that have followed. The book chronicles early U.S. Navy search efforts, the rise of the crash-and-sink theory, and more recent technological expeditions involving underwater sonar, satellite analysis, and even bone fragment testing on remote islands like Nikumaroro. It captures the passion (and sometimes the controversy) behind those who have dedicated years or even decades to solving the mystery.

Crucially, Lost neither promises resolution nor falls into sensationalism. It respects the evidence, the limitations of what we know, and the motivations of those still searching. The mystery remains open-ended, but the book gives readers the tools to understand why that mystery has persisted—and why it continues to matter.

In the end, Lost is more than a biography or an investigation; it’s a meditation on legacy, obsession, and the human need to seek closure. Whether you come for the story of Amelia Earhart’s life or stay for the unraveling of her disappearance, you’ll find this book deeply satisfying.

A must-read for history lovers, aviation enthusiasts, and anyone fascinated by real-world mysteries.

I really enjoyed getting to read this book, it uses the three theories perfectly and had that research element for each theory. I enjoyed getting into this book and how everything tried to figure out the mystery of Amelia Earhart. Rachel Hartigan has a strong writing style and had that research that I was looking for and enjoyed figuring out what was going on in this mystery.