Englischsprachige Literatur

Kanon Joseph

Los Alamos

Dell/Random House, New York 1997

Galbraith3

This is another thriller by Kanon, set in the now all too familiar period right after the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. This time Kanonīs topic is the heroic endeavour of  President Roosevelt by which a team of international (mostly German) Scientists finally manage to blast their first atomic bomb on the test site in Los Alamos.

Around this truly world-saving achievement Kanon again weaves his usual spy story, which enables him to describe, among others, the great Robert Oppenheimer in loving detail. His hero Michael Conolly, who works for the propaganda machine of the US Government, rewriting the atrocities of the actual war, is sent to investigate a murder at the test site. Like in “The good German” he falls in love with the wife of a German scientist, and together they unravel a communist plan to steal the details of the revered bomb.

Of course, again itīs the German members of the community there, that commit the treason. Not really surprising, not really thrilling, either.