V2
A novel of World War II
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Conclave, Fatherland, and Munich comes a WWII thriller about a German rocket engineer, a former actress turned British spy, and the Nazi rocket program.
The first rocket will take five minutes to hit London. You have six minutes to stop the second.
Rudi Graf is an engineer who always dreamed of sending rockets to the moon. But instead, he finds himself working alongside Wernher von Braun, launching V2 rockets at London for the Nazis from a bleak seaside town in occupied Holland. As the SS increases its scrutiny on the project, Graf, an engineer more than a soldier, has to muster all of his willpower to toe the party line. And when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a prime suspect.
Meanwhile, Kay Caton-Walsh, a young English intelligence officer, is living through the turmoil of war. After she and her lover, an RAF officer, are caught in a V2 attack, she volunteers to ship out for newly liberated Belgium. Armed with little more than a slide rule and a few equations, Kay and her colleagues hope to locate and destroy the launch sites. But at this stage in the war it’s hard to know who, if anyone, she can trust.
As the death toll soars, these twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign during the Second World War. And what the reader comes to understand is that Kay’s and Graf’s destinies are on a collision course.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This engrossing novel set in late 1944 from Thriller Award winner Harris (Munich) finds Section Officer Kay Caton-Walsh, of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, getting ready for the day after spending the night with her married lover and boss, Air Commodore Mike Templeton, in his London flat. Then a German V2 rocket damages Templeton's apartment building, leaving Kay with minor injuries. After the emergency responders mistake Kay for Templeton's wife, and the real Mrs. Templeton learns that she was erroneously reported hurt in the attack, Templeton begins to distance himself from Kay. That personal loss, coupled with Kay's direct experience of the V2's power, leads her to volunteer for a mission to Belgium, where she and several other women are to use their mathematical skills to trace the origin of a missile's flight by working backward from its trajectory and impact point. Once on the continent, Kay gets on the trail of a saboteur. As usual, Harris brings the past to life through vivid characterizations and clever plotting. Fans of superior historical fiction will be rewarded. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
