A TERRIBLE LOYALTY — William Roskey

Historical Fiction at its Best! One of the first reactions of many who have read this book is to say that it is far more than a novel about riveting submarine action in World War II. That it is, above all, a book about an extraordinary group of characters and the events that shaped them into the men and women they were when, without warning, 353 Japanese planes swooped down out of a clear cobalt sky on a quiet Sunday morning to wreak havoc on the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet, which lay quietly at anchor in Pearl Harbor. Dade Bowie is a 31-year old submarine skipper, the product of poverty and an abusive home life in West Texas. He is secretly afraid that he lacks the courage he needs to go into combat. Rachael Wyer spent 20 unsuccessful years as a missionary in a small Japanese fishing village, and, after Japanese naval cadets brutally murder her husband, she leaves to return to the United States. On her way back in April 1941, the Office of Naval Intelligence recruits her to translate intercepted Japanese naval communications in one of the most highly classified operations run by the United States. As she watches the attack in horror, she is 39-years old, and has already come to hate the Japanese even before this day. She and Dade Bowie will meet in the days following the attack and become lovers. They will battle the Japanese, naval bureaucracy, fear, conflicting loyalties, and their own personal demons in the desperate months that follow.