The Accidental Agent: A Jimmy Nessheim Novel
Jimmy Nessheim (Fear Itself, The Little Tokyo Informant) is back for a third adventure, and up to his chin in troubles that the average law student at the University of Chicago in 1942 should not endure. That’s because Jimmy is a special agent for the FBI on leave. His former colleague, rogue agent Harry Guttman, persuades him to look in on scientist Enrico Fermi as he and his team work on what will come to be known as the Manhattan Project. Fermi’s international crew is working against time under the stands of the university’s football stadium. Is the team being infiltrated by the Nazis? Or perhaps by America’s new allies, the Soviet Union?
Compounding Harry’s problems is another danger, in the alluring form of the fellow law student he’s now tutoring… old flame Stacey Madison, whose got a few secrets of her own. She quickly seduces Jimmy, who’s not yet over his broken heart, moves into his apartment, and the two begin a second, more cynical and wary version of their affair.
Hard-boiled in style, while stylish and rich in details of World War II on the home front, this outing is taut with suspense. Its conflicted heroes, who are not out-of-central-casting G-men, and complex female lead player add up to a compelling novel.
