Rachel Hartigan’s Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary Life is an engaging read with a smooth, conversational narrative that blends Earhart’s remarkable life story with the investigation of her 1937 disappearance.
Hartigan, a former National Geographic reporter, joined two expeditions to the uninhabited island of Nikumaroro with forensic dogs to search for Earhart’s remains. Although she was not an adventurous and bold person, she wanted to discover Earhart’s amazing life with the extraordinary efforts made to uncover how her quest ended and to understand why one woman continues to inspire such determined exploration.

The book traces Earhart’s unstable childhood with an alcoholic father, her early years moving frequently, and her rise to aviation fame shaped in part by the publicity efforts of her husband, publisher George Putnam. It moves between these biographical chapters and detailed accounts of the ongoing efforts to solve her disappearance. Hartigan centers the investigation around three major theories: that Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan ran out of fuel and crashed near Howland Island; that they landed on the remote Nikumaroro Island and survived briefly before dying from injury, dehydration, starvation, or exposure—an idea supported by radio distress calls, scattered artifacts, and later skeletal analysis; and finally, that they reached the Marshall Islands, were captured by Japanese soldiers, and died in custody on Saipan or elsewhere. This theory draws on eyewitness accounts from islanders, alleged intelligence reports, and claims of Earhart’s imprisonment.

Lost is an engaging blend of historical biography and scientific exploration that illustrates how Earhart lived and how she may have died. The narrative weaves her incredible life story with the obsessive pursuit of divers, archaeologists, historians, and amateur researchers who continue to investigate her disappearance, often at a great personal cost. Because of incomplete evidence, the mystery continues to captivate the public. Earhart’s story will appeal to readers interested in aviation history, feminism, scientific exploration, and historical mysteries.