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.)