A thousand suns

by Alex Scarrow

Paper Book, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Publication

London : Orion, 2009.

Description

It is early April of 1945. The Nazi regime is being slowly throttled by the oncoming Russian and Allied armies and Hitler rages uselessly in his Berlin bunker. But the high command have one more throw of the dice to make... An audacious plan is hatched to save the Fatherland and beat off the approaching apocalypse. All it will take is a hodge-podge squadron of escort fighters, a captured US bomber and one suicidally brave pilot to fly it over the Atlantic into the beating heart of America. Half a century later, a rusting plane is discovered, sunk with its crew, off the coast of New York - a relic from a bygone age. Chris Roland, a brilliant young photographer, is sent to take photos of this time capsule. But it is only when he discovers the fragments of Nazi uniforms on the decaying corpses that he realises he has come across a secret so terrible that even fifty years later it could still kill him...… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member MiloTheDog
'On April 29th, 1945, the allies unconditionally surrendered to Nazi Germany. Four hours later that surrender was withdrawn...'

It was the above tagline that made me pick up the book, and it was such a good purchase. It had been a long time since I was unable to put a book down until I'd finished
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it, but had to do it in this case. Absolutely brilliant idea, really well executed. Thoroughly recommended.
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LibraryThing member dspoon
It's early April of 1945 and the bloodied days of World War II. The Nazi regime is being slowly throttled by the oncoming Russian and Allied armies and Hitler rages uselessly in his Berlin bunker. But the high command have one more throw of the dice to make. An audacious plan is hatched to save the
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Fatherland and beat off the oncoming apocalypse. All it will take is a hodge-podge squadron of escort fighters, a captured U.S. bomber, and one brave but suicidal pilot to fly it over the Atlantic into the beating heart of America. Half a century later, a rusting plane is discovered, sunk with its crew, off the coast of New York—a relic from a bygone age. Chris Roland, a brilliant young photographer, is sent to take photos of this time capsule. But it is only when he discovers that the fragments of Nazi uniforms on the decaying corpses that he realizes that he has come across a secret so terrible that even 50 years later it could still kill him.
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LibraryThing member cathymoore
Having read Scarrow's previos novel and really enjoyed it I was very much looking forward to this. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed. The first 150 or so pages focus on the present day, and the discovery of a WW2 bomber by a fisherman and then the exploration of the wreck by a
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photojournalist. I found it very difficult to get into the story at this point and was on the point of giving up. I ploughted on and was rewarded with an excellent second half set in WW2 Germany and telling the story of the pilot and his crew whose daring voyage might have one Hitler the war. If the entire book had focussed on the part of the story set during the war and the author hadn't bothered to create the second plot thread during the present day then 5 stars would have been a far score.
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Awards

International Thriller Writers Award (Nominee — First Novel — 2007)

Language

Physical description

487 p.; 20 inches

ISBN

1409117308 / 9781409117308
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