Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Stealing Trinity by Ward Larsen. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Stealing Trinity by Ward Larsen
Non-series
Oceanview (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-933515-17-1 (1933515171)
ISBN-13: 978-1-933515-17-5 (9781933515175)
Publication Date: October 2008
List Price: $24.95
Review: Ward Larsen's second thriller, Stealing Trinity, wraps a fictional narrative around the unexpected Japanese attack on, and subsequent sinking of, the battle cruiser Indianapolis in the south Pacific just two weeks after the successful test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico in July, 1945.
Just weeks before the April 1945 surrender of Germany during World War II, three high ranking German officers agree on a strategy to secure the future of the Reich by extracting a spy that was working on a secret project with the Americans in New Mexico code named Manhattan Project. They enlist the aid of a sniper, Alexander Braun, whose mission it is to take the spy and as much information as he can gather to a rendezvous point in South America. An aide to the officers who was ordered to destroy information related to the plan (but reads some of it before doing so) is later captured and interrogated by a British Intelligence officer Michael Thatcher. When Thatcher warns the FBI that a Nazi spy may be headed to the US, they not only officially deny the existence of a Manhattan Project but that with the surrender of Germany, a Nazi spy would have no motivation to continue any assignment he may have been working on. Thatcher is convinced there is more to the story and travels to the US where he learns that Braun attended Harvard University before the war and was romantically linked at the time to Lydia Cole, a Newport socialite. On a hunch, he travels to Newport and finds Braun a guest in the Cole residence. Braun escapes with Thatcher, and later Lydia, following him across country, determined to thwart whatever scheme Braun may be planning.
Larsen strikes just the right balance in pacing Stealing Trinity, keeping the plot moving briskly forward but still providing time for readers to get to know the three primary characters yet not getting weighed down with potentially cumbersome historical minutiae. The plot is cleverly devised and provides a rational, even reasonable, explanation of why a Japanese submarine would be in a position to take down the Indianapolis. But the real reason Stealing Trinity succeeds is due to the exceptionally drawn characters of Braun, Thatcher, and Lydia. Braun's cunning and ruthlessness is depicted perfectly and his backstory (born in America to a father, a Nazi sympathizer, who forced him to leave college and serve Hitler, later returning to America, home as it were, albeit on a mission for Germany) adds color and depth. Thatcher, the reserved Englishman who lost a leg in the previous war but doesn't let a prosthetic slow him down, plays the cat to Braun's mouse. And Lydia, the pampered daughter of American aristocracy, shows spirited determination in chasing Braun, mostly for personal reasons, but also to demonstrate a new-found independence to her protective father. A solid supporting cast of characters are introduced as needed to move the plot forward, but they are clearly in the shadows of Braun, Thatcher, and Lydia. That in the final pages all three abruptly step out of character, one more than the others, is only ever so slightly disappointing.
Stealing Trinity is an exceptional thriller that will captivate readers with its strong plot and even stronger characters. It is highly recommended.
Special thanks to Maryglenn McCombs Book Publicity for providing an a copy of Stealing Trinity for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
If you are interested in purchasing Stealing Trinity from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): When the balance of world power is at stake, the fight for control could be explosive. In the last days of WWII, the Third Reich makes a desperate grab to retrieve its most valuable asset, Die Wespe, a spy buried deep in the Manhattan Project. The man chosen for this mission is Alexander Braun -- American born, Harvard educated, and a ruthless killer.
British Intelligence learns of the Nazi plan. Unable to convince their American counterparts of the magnitude of the threat, they dispatch Major Michael Thatcher to track down Braun.
The trail leads to Rhode Island, where Lydia Cole, a young heiress, has unwittingly taken Braun back into her life. Braun is forced to run, and there is one place where he must go -- Los Alamos, home of the Manhattan Project.
On July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb is tested -- code named Trinity. In the days that follow, four people -- a tenacious British investigator, a determined young woman, a killer, and the spy who could compromise America’s greatest scientific endeavor -- will have a fateful rendezvous, all vying for control of the secret that will shape the world.
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