Scandal in the Secret City

September 22, 2014
This awkward first in a new WWII-era series from Fanning (Chain Reaction)
introduces Elizabeth “Libby” Clark, a chemist at the secret atomic bomb development facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who encounters sexism, suspicion, and jealousy from male colleagues as well as from women employed in secretarial and other clerical positions. Only the friendship of her roommate, Ruth Nance, and the approval of Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, provide solace. After Ruth and Libby stumble across the body of Ruth’s sister, Irene, who also worked at Oak Ridge, their pursuit of the case results in Ruth losing her job and Libby facing official stonewalling and pressure to forget what she has seen in the name of the national interest. Libby subsequently turns to an eccentric coterie of scientists for help in tracking down the killer in a story guilty of gaps in logic and an obvious perpetrator. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel & Goderich.

October 1, 2014

Elizabeth Clark, better known as Libby, wants to be a scientist; she majored in chemistry and physics at Bryn Mawr College and earned a master's degree in analytical chemistry. It's April 1943, but even women with advanced degrees still have trouble finding work. Libby is finally hired by Eastman Kodak and travels to Oak Ridge, TN, where hundreds of other young women have been employed to run the Calutron, a huge machine used to separate the various components of "Tube Alloy," the code name for uranium. Libby suspects they might be building an atomic bomb. When her analysis gets her noticed by Gen. Leslie Groves, she moves out of the dorm and into a tiny house. But Libby misses her old dorm mate, Ruthie Nance, a Calutron Girl who occasionally comes for sleepovers. One cold winter morning, the two find the corpse of Ruthie's sister, Irene, with a scarf wrapped tightly around her neck. But when they report the crime, the body mysteriously disappears and the military police act as though nothing really happened. VERDICT True crime and mystery writer Fanning ("Lucinda Pierce" series) launches a fascinating new historical series that also offers an almost sociological study of women's issues during World War II. Her refreshingly original amateur sleuth is smart, strong-willed, and independent in an era when marriage was usually the only career option for women. Libby is bound by her word to help uncover the truth, even when it puts her in danger. Readers will be engrossed by a gripping puzzler of a mystery and authentic details regarding America's "Secret City" and its role in the development of the atomic bomb.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.