THOMAS EDISON AND THE LAZARUS VESSEL

In this novel, a group of unlikely heroes strives to thwart a Nazi conspiracy.

In 1933, two years after Thomas Edison’s death, a miniature model of his “resurrector” device springs to life and delivers to his cohort John Dawkins a message about George Gershwin (“Go find Gershwin. NOW!!!”). In attempting to do so, Dawkins befriends Groucho Marx, and the two set off on a wild cross-country chase, pursued by Plug Uglies and agents of a burgeoning Nazi Germany. Having parachuted from a soon-to-be-downed plane, the two find themselves in the Arizona desert and then the Verde Valley and a secret mountain laboratory. There, Edison and former showgirl Emily Auburn (Dawkins’ deceased lover) are resurrected from vats of rubber using electromagnetic fusion and the inventor’s “Lazarus Vessel”—a device that Hitler now covets to provide new bodies for dead German soldiers. Hitler, obsessed with the supernatural, has kidnapped Gershwin, who has the ability to tell the future. To further his nefarious aspirations, Hitler plans to abduct first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and unleash a deadly toxin at the Chicago World’s Fair. Can Dawkins and friends outfight their adversaries and forestall the Nazi plot? In this sequel, Church employs an omniscient, past-tense narrative, relating the story through straightforward prose and with a bonhomie that turns not only peril into adventure, but also several grisly demises into almost cozy collateral damage. Dawkins and company’s escapades have a Biggles-esque quality, while the outlandish SF angle and appropriation of historical characters lend the work the feel of an inventive comic book or graphic novel. Church spins a madcap yarn, but it is grounded in an earnest appreciation of history. Real-life personages, rather than being suborned or repurposed, are treated with respect and remain, as it were, in character. Indeed, while Dawkins is an action-hero cipher, the historical figures—notably Marx and Mrs. Roosevelt—shine with genuine personalities. Even the Nazis are afforded a certain amount of nuance. Still, readers unfamiliar with the author’s previous volume, Thomas Edison and the Purgatory Equation (2022), may flounder for a while. The early part of the plot is obscured by action scenes, and Church makes little effort to orient newcomers. Nonetheless, the threads all tie together and the whole caboodle fizzes with energy.

A free-wheeling, enjoyable blend of real history, derring-do adventure, and early cinematic comedy.