The second sun

This suspenseful historical thriller from Deutermann (Iwo, 26 Charlie) hinges on an intriguing question: was Japan working on its own atomic bomb in the waning days of WWII? It's the spring of 1945; Germany has been defeated, but Japan fights on. A surrendered German U-boat is escorted into the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine with a full crew, and U.S. Navy captain Wolfe Bowen, who works for the Navy's strategic planning committee, climbs aboard. He discovers that the submarine has a secret deck with containers of unrefined U-238 uranium that the Germans planned to send to Japan for use in their weapons program. Bowen's superiors then clue him in to America's greatest secret: the Manhattan Project, which has just produced two atomic bombs. Soon, President Truman assigns Bowen to investigate Japan's program and its relevance to the U.S.'s decision to drop the weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Deutermann's characters, both real and fictional, are well drawn, complex, and sympathetic; he makes a stirring moral dilemma out of Bowen's assignment and generates thrilling romantic heat between him and Lt. Commander Janet Waring, who's assigned to help translate his work into Japanese. Deutermann's fans and WWII buffs alike will enjoy this gripping treatment of an underexplored aspect of the war. Agent: Ed Maxwell, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Mar.)

A World War II Navy captain looks for signs of a Japanese atomic bomb program. In March 1945, Germany has given up, but the war in the Pacific is far from over. Captain Wolfe Bowen is ordered to check out a surrendered German U-boat that had two Japanese passengers aboard and find out what they'd been doing in the North Atlantic. The sub is a strange one, having a second deck but no torpedo tubes. In that extra deck is uranium that the German captain will not show Bowen even at gunpoint. Strahlung, the German explains. Radiation. Bowen reports this to his superiors, who clue him in about our Manhattan Project, which is so secret that FDR (who dies within weeks) even keeps it from Vice President Truman. Bowen also learns that the Nazis had been trying to develop an atomic bomb, so is Germany sharing its technology with Japan? That is for Bowen to find out as he travels by submarine through dangerous Japanese waters. Indeed, as U.S. brass had never expected, he witnesses spectacular evidence of the enemy's nuclear efforts. This news must immediately get to the suddenly President Truman. What if an atomic bomb explodes on our invading troops? In this fictional telling, such a prospect drives Truman to drop U.S. bombs first. Bowen works closely with Lieutenant Commander Janet Waring, who knows Japanese culture and language. They get along quite well--he's a big fellow who pumps iron to relieve his stress, then learns that she is happy to relieve his stress in bed. After the bombs, President Truman directs the duo to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki and report back to him how bad it really was. And how did ordinary people feel about the American victors--was it rage or resignation? What "the Japanese were calling the second sun had bloomed in the early morning sky over Hiroshima" and left human shadows burned into sidewalks. Survivors looked like the living dead. All colors disappeared, leaving only black and white. Bowen and Waring are exceptionally good at finding out what the big shots need to know, and readers will like them both. Whether Japan ever had its own atomic bomb program is unknown, though the author thinks they probably did. Dramatic history presented in vivid detail. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.