Given to me by a friend, not going to read it.

Taking this book to our meeting this evening. If nobody takes it home, it will be waiting patiently on the bookshelf for someone new to enjoy it.

This book is currently sitting on the Winnipeg Official Bookcrossing Zone bookshelf in the loft of The Park Theatre & Movie Café, 698 Osborne Street, Winnipeg MB.

It is waiting there for a new reader to take home, read, and release back into the wild!

Winnipeg bookcrossers meet at my location on the second Wednesday of every month at 7pm to chat about books, swap great reads, and release on the OBCZ shelves. Please join us! We love to see new faces! You will enjoy the comfy atmosphere, the fabulous coffees and teas, and the yummy treats!

There were so many books on the OBCZ bookshelf that we couldn't fit all the new ones in. So I decided to bring this one home thinking I would release it somewhere but, you know how it is, I read the blurb about the book and I think I should read it. So I'm going to mark it TBR for now.

This book is set in Los Alamos, New Mexico at the time that the Manhattan Project was trying to develop the nuclear bomb. Little did I know when I picked this book up that I would be visiting Los Alamos later that year. It was fascinating to see the place where all those scientists came up with the solution to the war in Japan. I had never realized what a massive project it was and how quickly it came together. This book is more about Joe Pena, a sergeant who is the official driver and bodyguard for Dr. Oppenheimer, than about the building of the bomb. That said, there is a lot about what went on in that remote community that was perhaps not as much as secret as the Army thought it was.

Joe Pena was a Pueblo Indian who grew up in the Santiago Pueblo near Los Alamos. When he was young he was given the job of teaching a young Jewish boy from New York how to ride a horse. That boy was Robert Oppenheimer who went on to lead the Manhattan Project. When they needed a place to build and test the bomb he thought of the remote mesa that he had ridden with Joe. And he requested that Joe be his driver and bodyguard. Joe had knocked around the States since then as a boxer and jazz pianist. He was forced to join the Army when he and some fellow musicians tried to give an impromptu concert on a military base. He was sent to the Phillippines and made it out of there after the Japanese landed. Back in the States he had an affair with an officer's wife and got thrown in the brig. That's where Captain Augustino, chief of security in Los Alamos, found him and offered him the chance to get out to work at Los Alamos. In addition to his official duties he wanted Joe to spy for him.

Joe seems to be right in the centre of everything at Los Alamos. He drove Oppenheimer to the place that became Ground Zero for testing the bomb. That spot was known as Stallion Gate because of the mustangs that would be rounded up by the Indians in the area. For a sergeant he certainly had access to a lot of secret material. Augustino was convinced that there were spies at Los Alamos and he thought Oppenheimer was one. He also thought that Dr. Anna Weiss, who had known Oppenheimer when he studied in Germany, was another. When Dr. Weiss and Joe became lovers Augustino was pleased because he thought Joe could keep close tabs on her.

Joe does discover a spy but not one that Augustino was interested in. And it is true that there were spies for the Russians at Los Alamos. In fact, I suspect that a lot of this book is based upon the truth. It's a fascinating story about a fascinating time in history told by a writer who can deliver.

I'm going to offer this book to BellBelle. Hope she likes it.

Well BellBelle read the book but she didn't like it so she gave it back to me without reviewing it. Oh well, maybe someone else will enjoy it.

I'll take this book to the Winnipeg meet-up tonight. If no-one wants to take it home I'll leave it on the free bookshelf in the cafe.

Picked up at the bookcrossing shelf. Thanks for leaving it.