Stealing Trinity

As history now tells us, the atomic bomb was first tested on July 16, 1945 in an isolated area of the New Mexico desert. The test was code-named Trinity. Against this backdrop, Ward Larsen of Sarasota has created a page-turner of a political thriller titled "Stealing Trinity."

The story begins in Berlin in April 1945. WWII is in its final days. The Nazis are losing and they know it. Larsen creates a telling detail when he writes, "Gruber poured stout bracers and issued them around. No one bothered to toast anything - for three German officers a certain sign of lost hope - and three heads snapped back."

But Colonel Gruber of Nazi intelligence, has a plan and he convenes a meeting with other high-ranking Nazis to discuss what the world will come to know as the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project is the code name for the project that resulted in the development of the first atomic bomb. Recognizing that whoever controls the information, in essence, controls the world, Colonel Gruber proposes that a spy be chosen to retrieve either Die Wespe, the German loyalist scientist working on the Manhattan project, or his data. The spy chosen is Captain Alexander Braun, who is more than a Nazi, he is a trained and ruthless assassin with the extra bonus of having been American born and Harvard educated.

Braun heads for America and Rhode Island where he is reunited with Lydia Cole, his former lover who is now married. Meanwhile, in Britain, Military Intelligence has learned of the plot. Unable to convince the Americans of the seriousness of the threat the plot presents, Major Michael Thatcher, a British MI-19 investigator, is assigned to discover Braun's whereabouts and to foil the plot. He follows Braun to the United States. Braun, realizing he's been discovered is forced to run, and he heads for Los Alamos. The three meet there and, with the balance of world power at stake, do battle.

Larsen's book has an air of authenticity, which is not surprising given his background. A native of South Florida, Larsen is a former U. S. Air Force fighter pilot who flew combat in Operation Desert Storm. He is currently a captain with a major airline and that easily explains the credibility of many of the scenes. The history is impeccably researched, but never gets in the way of the story. The characters are nicely fleshed out, and the plot zings along to a satisfying conclusion. A good read.

Books reviewed in this column are available online or at your local bookstore.