Winter’s Bullet by William Osborne - ADVISABLE

Osborne, William Winter’s Bullet, 240 pages.  Chicken House (Scholastic), 2016.  $18.  Language: PG (11 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13 (fighting, beating, shooting deaths).

Ever since the Germans took control of Amsterdam, Tygo has been their unwilling collaborator – it was either collaborate or death.  His specialty is breaking into houses and ferreting out hidden valuables.  Now, however, his boss is desperately searching for The Red Queen, a very special diamond.  When he climbs the chimney, however, he instead finds – a girl?  Now Tygo is determined to save the girl, find the diamond, and escape his captors.  All while dodging the Dutch Resistance which is determined to capture Tygo and punish him for collaborating.  All of these forces will come to a climax which includes Hitler, a daring escape plan and German’s version of the atomic bomb.

Osborne likes to write alternate history.  This times he asks – what if Germany managed to build the atomic bomb before the US?  Who would stop them?  Personally, I think Tygo’s story was actually adventure enough without dragging the atomic bomb into it.  What you have to remember is that this is NOT a real WWII historical fiction book, just a grand and dangerous adventure.

MS – ADVISABLE.  Cindy, Library Teacher