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Summary: Not as grand a mystery as the title would suggest
Review: I read this book because I was always fascinated by the Manhatten Project. I went in with the impression that a grand scheme to kill the project would be uncoverd and that the government had covered it up (See "Snow Wolf" if that is what you are looking for). Los Alamos is certainly not that. While the character development is good and plenty of work goes into determining who done it, I found that this book seemed to drag and in the end was disappointed and let down with who did it and why.
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Summary: Great read
Review: The historical aspects of Los Alamos are very educational although somewhat fictional. The characters are believable, especially the love interest for the main character and the small town sheriff. I have read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. The ending is a little to much of a fade out for my liking, but might symbolize the tensions that lay before us in the cold war. Would make a good movie with the write screenplay and believable actors.
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Summary: I wish I hadn¿t finished this book.
Review: The reader is treated to an investigator who's approach to investigating is to hang around and sleep with a married woman as much as possible. His big break is as a result of a chance encounter. And we learn the details of the plot from ploters who become astonishingly loquacious when confronted.
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Summary: Try Richard Rhodes "Making of the Atomic Bomb"
Review: Were it not set against such a compelling historical backdrop, this would be an entirely forgettable mystery. But Army Intelligence officer Michael Connolly isn't investigating just any murder; the corpse found in a Santa Fe park is that of a Los Alamos security officer and it is early April, 1945. Though the victim is found with his pants around his ankles, suggesting a possible tie to a previous unsolved homosexual murder, it is Connolly's job to be certain that the case does not effect security at the most secretive and important military installation in the country. Kanon uses the setting and real life characters to good effect. The story unfolds as final preparations are made for testing the atomic bomb and concludes on the night of Trinity, with the blast being the most impressive bit of writing in the book. Kanon's hardly the first to exploit the natural tension between the very different General Leslie Groves--blunt, bluff, and straightforward--and J. Robert Oppenheimer--all introspection and angst--but he does so capably. And the questions of whether to use the bomb and what motivated those who spied for the Soviets provide a patina of moral seriousness. Unfortunately though, much of this historical drama is undercut by what we now know of the real history. Obviously we know that the bomb will work and that it will be dropped on Japan. More importantly, we know that the Manhattan Project was thoroughly infiltrated by Soviet Intelligence and that even some of the scientists who were not Communists may have supplied information to the Soviets. They may honestly have believed that the post-War world would be better off if both superpowers had the bomb, but, whether they were right or not (a fight we need not take up here), such actions on their part were nonetheless treasonous. Of course, the big question concerns Oppenheimer himself. With the fall of the Soviet Union, there has been some corroboration of the accusation that he too aided the Soviet Union (see particularly the memoirs of Pavel Sudoplatov, Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness--A Soviet Spymaster), but nothing definitive has come out. I recall my first exposure to Oppenheimer was a miniseries in 1980 which not only sought to portray him as something of a martyr to anti-Communist witch hunts, but which, given the context of the times, was at least an oblique commentary on US paranoia as a cause of the Cold War. Now that we can step back and look at the Oppenheimer case with a little less emotion, it seems unimportant whether he actually committed any acts of espionage himself; what seems truly bizarre is that a man who had belonged to Communist front groups and whose wife, brother, and many friends were all Communists, at one time or another, was put, and left, in charge of the project in the first place. Though he was reviled for saying so, one has to agree with Edward Teller's testimony at Oppenheimer's security hearings that the nation would be more secure with Oppenheimer out of government. At any rate, considering the ease with which the Soviets obtained the supposedly safely guarded atomic secrets, it's a little bit difficult to take the book's espionage plotline seriously. In fact, the book would have benefited from a little less of the standard chase, since its outcome doesn't ultimately matter, and a little further exploration of the motivations and consequences of the real spying that went on there. GRADE : C
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Summary: Edgar Romantic Suspense Winner & Deserved It!
Review: This novel is shelved as a mystery but it is every bit as much, or more, a romance. It is told with the hero's first person voice and is set in atmospheric Los Alamos during WW II during the Manhattan Project. I found the setting of the story compelling. The characters are not all white or black, any of them, but shades of grey instead. This rather fits with the setting since many people have mixed feelings nowadays about both Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project themselves. Los Alamos and the atom bomb project are backdrop and setting, however, to a character driven novel that also provides a murder mystery to solve. For those romance readers eager to shake the virginal heroine with the heart of gold and try a flawed heroine instead, this may be your book. This could have been a big groundbreaking novel in the romance genre had it been shelved or classified there and I'm sorry it wasn't.
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Summary: Gender difference of opinion on this 1945 spy mystery
Review: My husband and I agreed on much of this book. It's a solid enough mystery. The historical and geographic settings make for very interesting reading. We both started out knowing virtually nothing about the atomic bomb project. We now know much more of the history and personalities of the projects -- even if we are still clueless on the science. Where we diverged strongly in opinion concerned the romance between Mike and Emma. My husband says that "it's the stuff of guy fantasies." As the daughter of WW2 era parents, my reaction was that the romance was just that -- such a fantasy that it interfered with my ability to enjoy the story. I just can't buy Emma's promiscuity in the context of what I know of women during those years. So, three stars from me and five stars from my husband = four stars.
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Summary: Life during atomic wartime captivates
Review: Moral ambiguity is the spice to mysteries, and it grow sharpest than at ground zero on a windswept mesa in New Mexico in Joseph Kanon's debut novel "Los Alamos." There, working in near-complete secrecy on a government-built city, scientists led by J. Robert Oppenheimer developed the atomic bomb. But when the murder of a security officer -- himself a German refugee like many of the scientists -- with hints of a homosexual encounter involved, poses a risk to the project. The project chief calls in Army Intelligence, in the form of Michael Connolly, to investigate, and possibly to suppress what he finds. The case is tricky in more ways than one. Connolly must deal with the local police, as well as suspicions that the murder may be homosexually related, at a time where homophobia was public policy instead of a private embarrassment. But Kanon shines in recreating the atmosphere of this city in the clouds, where scientists work feverishly to unveil the secrets of atomic fission by day, and listen to Beethoven quartets by night; where its residents can be reached by only a box number, their driver's licenses identify them by numbers, but as Connolly observed, "in the most secret place in the world, there was maid service." Kanon dives into issues of moral responsibility often, of the need for secrecy and deceit, but also for the need for love and trust among people seemingly incapable of both. Kanon obligingly throws in the English wife of an emigre scientist, tough and cynical in jodhpurs and drink, aching for the human touch inside. "Los Alamos" is really what much-hyped "The Big Picture" should have been, a look at some truly heady moral issues wrapped in the guilty pleasures of a murder mystery. While Kanon trots with the conventions of the genre instead of runs with it, taking few risks and faithfully following the contours of the genre, "Los Alamos" offers greater pleasures in its depiction of everyday life in a city that doesn't exist, among people without identity. It's a memorable depiction of two worlds, the outside pre-nuclear power civilization and the inside community of scientists, both blown away forever by the radioactive dust from the Trinity bomb site.
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Summary: shallow, a fantasy for men only
Review: Los Alamos is a book by a man, about a man, for men. As a female reader, neither the story nor the characters had much to engage me. I did enjoy the setting, and wished he could have devoted more space to describing how the bomb was built and tested. The love story left me cold. I felt uncomfortable with his treatment of Robert Oppenheimer, not knowing if it was accurate. By the end of the book, I was caught up in the whodunnit, but still felt unsatisfied with the characters, especially the female ones.
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Summary: A great period piece
Review: Joseph Kanon's novel Los Alamos is a wonderful period piece that uses the almost unbelievable setting of the Manhattan Project as the basis for a mystery and love story that, because of the situation and time, are more significant than would otherwise be the case. The blending of real and fictional characters in what is one of the centuries most fascinating stories makes for a gripping tale that has much to recommend it. This is a fascinating story and led me to unexpected hours of research on the actual history of the Manhbattan Project just to check things out. I think any American with a even a slight interest in our recent history would find this book fascinating. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Disappointed
Review: As with an earlier reveiwer, I had to force myself to continue reading this book until the last 40-50 pages drew me in. The author has a feel for the period but not for the genre. The research is there as are the descriptions of scenes and people. It just doesn't come alive as either a mystery or thriller. In this instance I am glad I waited until the book hit the bargain bin before I bought it.
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