A Thousand Suns

Scarrow debuts with an intense what-if that ties a present-day freelance photographer to an ill-fated WWII German assault on Manhattan. Photojournalist Chris Roland heads to Rhode Island to investigate reports of an American B-17 bomber wrecked just off the coast. When he crawls into the submerged cockpit, he finds what appear to be the skeletal remains of a Luftwaffe pilot. His curiosity piqued, Roland investigates, but his interest and his photographs put him in the crosshairs of James Wallace, an aging spy charged by Truman to keep the B-17 and its mission top secret. The prose is unsteady in places, but Scarrow has a real talent for pacing, and he keeps the tension escalating as the action flips between Wallace's pursuit of Roland and the final days of WWII. (Apr.)