Stealing Trinity

From Publishers WeeklyLarsen (The Perfect Assassin) links the torpedoing of the USS Indianapolis shortly after the ship delivers an atomic bomb to the island of Tinian in the South Pacific to a Nazi plot in his second thriller, set in the waning days of WWII. Maj. Michael Thatcher, a tenacious British officer whose job is to hunt down Nazi spies, is intrigued when the words Manhattan Project come up in one of his interrogations. Meanwhile, in Germany, Col. Hans Gruber knows that a sleeper spy, Die Wespe, who's been working on the atomic bomb project in Los Alamos, must be smuggled out of the U.S. with his stolen plans so that those Nazis who survive the war can rearm and continue their goal of world domination. Charged with this mission is Capt. Alexander Braun, an American fighting in the German army. Braun is clever and ruthless, but once Thatcher catches his scent, he won't rest until Braun is captured or killed. An innovative, original plot marks Larsen as an author to watch. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From BooklistLeaders in the Third Reich see the end coming and decide to launch a bold plan. One of their most valuable spies in the U.S. is working on a top-secret initiative called the Manhattan Project, prompting the Nazis to send their top agent, ruthless killer Alexander Braun, to reconnoiter with the spy. Born in America, Braun heads back to the States with a personal agenda: visit the woman he was forced to leave behind when he left the country. He finds himself torn between his feelings for her and his mission. Meanwhile, British intelligence learns of Braun and sends one of its best agents after him. All of their lives collide at the dawn of the atomic age. This is well-trod ground—Joseph Kanon’s Los Alamos (1997), for example—and Larsen’s characters and story line provide no real surprises. Still, for readers who can’t get enough of the Manhattan Project in fiction, this is a serviceable thriller. --Jeff Ayers