My Bridge over the River Kwai

Time for an old-school thriller. Time for My Bridge Over the River Kwai.
 
Fast-paced and edgy, My Bridge Over the River Kwai centers on a little-known and very real nuclear explosion that took place on September 22, 1979 in the vast emptiness of the Southern Atlantic. Despite being recorded by U.S. spy satellites, no one has ever acknowledged responsibility for the event, which has become known as the VELA Incident (for more information, use the search term “Vela Incident”). My Bridge Over the River Kwai is a fictional account of how this explosion may have come to pass. Historically accurate, the story plays out against the backdrop of the 1975-80 Lebanese Civil War.
 
The novel’s title plays on the 1950s movie of a similar name in which the hero is forced to build a rail bridge to aid his Japanese captors in their war against his own British countrymen. Decades later, the novel’s hero, Dr. Anthony DeNoble, is captured and enslaved, but rather than a bridge, he’s forced to build an atomic bomb for his ruthless PLO captors. Along the way, he’s seduced by the beautiful PLO camp doctor, haunted by the ghost of Robert J. Oppenheimer – father of the original atomic bomb, and tormented by the evil his weapon may cause. When his efforts ultimately prove successful, his captors further add to this torment by revealing New York City to be the target of his creation.
 
Like the hero of the film, our hero is unwilling to let his creation bring destruction to his fellow countrymen and plans a dramatic escape to warn of the danger. But his plans are betrayed by those he trusts and he’s left with no alternative but to spring his own trap and foil his captors’ plans. Culminating in the VELA nuclear explosion, My Bridge Over the River Kwai is a thriller/espionage novel chronicling Tony’s odyssey from his carefree life as professor of physics at the American University of Beirut to his ultimate sacrifice on the storm-tossed waters of the South Atlantic.