This is an unusual one for me. As regular readers know, I rarely read thrillers but there was a time in the ‘90s when I visited the States quite a few times, falling in love with the Southwest and its fabulous desert landscapes. We overnighted in Los Alamos on one such holiday so I couldn’t resist Joseph Kanon’s novel set in this remote New Mexico town where Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project which developed the atom bomb.
Kanon’s novel is a powerful espionage thriller in which Michael Connolly traces the events that lead to the death of Kurt Bruner, a security man from ‘the Hill’. Central to the novel is Connolly’s affair with Emma, a young British woman with a colourful history of involvement in the Spanish War now married to a Polish scientist. Tightly plotted and neatly resolved, Los Alamos vividly evokes the effects of the murder on a small community which is both closed and close, wrapped in layer upon layer of security in which no one is quite sure what anyone else is doing. It’s a great novel but what I particularly loved was its sense of place which took me back to the high desert. Tara Shea Nesbit’s smart debut, The Wives of Los Alamos, did the same thing in 2014
Los Alamos proved to be a one-off Kanon success for me. I did try The Prodigal Spy, set in Prague, another holiday destination, but the magic had gone. Despite the lure of Berlin, I decided to give Leaving Berlin a miss.
What about you, any blasts from the past you’d like to share?
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This isn’t my usual sort of read either, but you have tempted me. It sounds compelling!
It’s very well done. Not one I would have read had I not visited New Mexico. Los Alamos itself is an odd town – it’s as if it was dropped into the desert which I suppose is pretty much what happened.
Did you like it simply because it was evocative of those landcapes you loved? If we haven’t had the good fortune to explore them, would we love this book too?
I was interested in the historical context and thought it was very tightly plotted so if that appeals I think it would be enjoyable.
Oh, those beautiful desert landscapes! The Wives of Los Alamos is on the face of it more interesting to me just because I love everything to do with the Cold War, and I really loved Oppenheimer so I like the idea of something that covers that story from a different angle.
They’re stunning aren’t they. New Mexico was my favourite of the Four Corners states. I really enjoyed The Wives of Los Alamos – it’s polyphonic which is quite a bold move for a debutante novelist but it works well.
I’ve had a copy of the paperback of this on my shelves ever since it was first published – I really should read it, shouldn’t I ?
You should! A great summer read. One to lose yourself in.
I know what you mean about there being certain reading eras when a certain kind of book frequented your stack but, then, only rarely appeared afterwards. I was recently keying in an older reading log and was reminded of my own espionage phase (which I only occasionally dabble in now, though it’s still fun).
It is, if done well, isn’t it. This would have made a great TV/film adaptation with all that stunning scenery.