cover image Aces

Aces

Robert Denny. Dutton Books, $18.95 (294pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-225-6

In late 1944, just as Hitler's Reich began to crumble, the world's first operational jet fighter, the Messerschmitt 262, appeared in the skies of Europe. Three times faster than U.S. bombers, it presented a daunting challenge to the young Americans--hollow-eyed old men by the time they hit 30--who piloted our lumbering B-17s. These historical facts are the basis for a superb, audacious novel by former WW II pilot Denny, who himself flew B-17 missions against the Nazis. Never mind the too-neat symmetry that pits squadron commander Mitch Robinson of Pennyslvania against dashing Luftwaffe ace Karl von Moltke, to whom he is distantly related. Never mind a pat romantic subplot which has Robinson's best buddy, hunky Swede Lon Amundson, stealing his ex-sweetheart. Denny writes from the heart and the gut, avoiding the flashiness, nostalgia and patriotic chest-thumping of lesser war novelists. A believable love story adds emotional immediacy, and frighteningly realistic scenes--Hitler seething in his bunker, Ike discovering the reality of the concentration camps, England under a rain of bombs, the hell of uncertain skies--bring the war home with vivid impact. (Jan.)