Bombshell

May 27, 2013
In this counterculture tale of revenge from Reich (I, Judas), Varyushka Cash, former stripper and member of a now-disbanded radical feminist gang, is dying from thyroid cancer—a result of her having been exposed as a child to fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Hell-bent on sending a powerful message about the evil of nuclear technology to the world, Cash blows up the monument that marks the Trinity bombsite, where the first atom bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert. After fleeing to her present home of Madrid, N.Mex., Cash runs into Molly Pinkerton, a misunderstood post-op transsexual who lends Cash her car. As Cash heads for the Indian Point nuclear facility in New York, Robert Dresner, a CIA agent with deep sadomasochist urges, follows in desperate pursuit. Readers won’t find much in the way of character development, and the twist that brings about the final confrontation between Dresner and Cash is unbelievable. Agent: Will Lippincott, Lippincott & Massie.

May 1, 2013
A feminist activist, born in the midst of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, initiates a series of systematic strikes against the American nuclear industry. Set in 2011, Reich's (I, Judas, 2011) thriller introduces the protagonist: Varyushka Cash, a 25-year-old extremist whose personal crusade against nuclear energy is fueled by punk rock, a strict adherence to feminist ideology and a disdain for symbols of masculinity. After her parents disappear in a murky series of events following the tragedy at Chernobyl, Cash is taken in by three older women who offer her a family structure that is fused with an indoctrination into feminist thought. As this loose-knit family falls into disarray, Cash forms a lesbian relationship with one of the women. After losing her partner, Cash heads to the New Mexico desert, where she reflects on her past and plans her mission. Taking a Vietnam veteran who has undergone extensive gender reassignment surgery as her only friend, Cash uses rural New Mexico as her home base for beginning to target nuclear sites and the high-powered executives driving the nuclear industry. In the process, she begins a cross-country spree of violence that takes her simultaneously into an imagined past and an unforeseen future. Along the way, Cash is pursued by an amoral CIA hit squad led by an unflinching, and somewhat one-dimensional, veteran of covert affairs who represents the paradigm of masculine forcefulness. The feminist heroine is a fresh twist on the thriller genre, but the story doesn't deliver much excitement.

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