Wild Embers

The role of African Americans in the WWII military is the focus of this uneven novel by the author of Black Gold. In 1943, Janelle Roy, a nurse in Columbus, Ohio, is falsely blamed for the death of a wealthy white patient. Slandered by the dead woman's sister, she is represented by white NAACP lawyer Dalton Graham, who clears her name but abruptly breaks off their budding romance. Humiliated and unable to secure work, Janelle is accepted as an Army nurse (there is a quota for ``colored'' personnel) and heads to Tuskeegee, Ala., a base for training black pilots, who are segregated even in the military. En route, she meets sexy black pilot Lance Fuller. They eventually fall in love, but Lance is ordered into combat before he can reveal an important secret that may threaten their relationship. Each then suffers a traumatic accident that jeopardizes their plans for the future. A secondary plot concerns Janelle's brother Perry, a headstrong, idealistic agitator for civil rights whose resentment of racial prejudice leads to violence and tragedy. Bunkley is best depicting her characters' refreshing ambivalence about interracial relationships and civil rights protests. The novel's pace is slowed, however, by a distracting number of minor characters and stilted romantic dialogue, and Bunkley provides a frothy ending that runs counter to her otherwise realistic depiction of the lives of black people in the 1940s. Literary Guild alternate. (Feb.)