“Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War” by Catherine Grace Katz

c.2026, Viking, $38, 486 pages

Your vacation partner wants to drive to your next weekend getaway.

You want to fly. Driving takes too long, riding a bus has been suggested, or a train, but you can’t agree. Traveling can be complicated sometimes, and in the new book, “Shadow Before the Flame” by Catherine Grace Katz, it can be deadly, too.

Imagine a silent killer floating above you, ready to strike.

Surely, that reality terrorized Germany’s enemies during the Great War, as they were bombed by a silent zeppelin overhead. But after the war and with strides made in airplane technology, the Germans had to find new uses for the airships: instead of using them for warfare, they realized that zeppelins were also suited for civilian use.

Passengers were thrilled by dirigibles; they could see things from the skies that no one had seen before. Zeppelins seemed to be a safer way to travel than by car or by plane; certainly, they were faster. The Germans created a whole fleet of them, including the Hindenburg, the pride of Germany.

She was the largest dirigible ever built, and the most luxurious, almost like an ocean liner. The Hindenburg was never meant for war; says Katz, the Germans intended it for an “aviation first: regular commercial passenger service between Europe and the United States.” The problem was that “only two gases… could lift a dirigible as large as the Hindenburg: hydrogen and helium.” The U.S. had the corner on the latter; Germany was, therefore, “forced… to use flammable hydrogen as the only available alternative.”

Still, engineers were able to make hydrogen safe, and tickets on the Hindenburg were a hot commodity. Wealthy passengers were attracted by its luxury.

Americans working in Germany hoped to leave before tensions heated up. The speed of travel was a bonus; the Hindenburg was supposed to reach New Jersey in record time, much faster than an airplane.

And it did. But moments after it arrived, just before it moored, passengers “heard what sounded like a pop…”

Based entirely on the above, you might understand that “Shadow Before the Flame” is not, by any means, an easy, breezy fall read. No, it’s righteously a deep and detailed history; indeed, anything less than what’s inside would do this story a disservice, and readers of this sort of genre would be unhappy with a watered-down narrative. Katz has sprinkled a bit of pop culture here and there that embellishes things some, but most of this book is quite complex.

That said, the focus here on the people aboard the Hindenburg keeps readers around, even when the technical information can be daunting. Katz brings readers into the lives of those on the dirigible, and she helps readers to understand why the Hindenburg is historically important, and how the tragedy of it impacted what happened afterward.

If you’re a fan of World War II stories and you crave the details, that should spur you to put this book atop your TBR pile. “Shadow Before the Flame.” That’s the ticket.