THE UNQUIET GENIUS

A nuclear-arms race hinges on finding a reclusive Italian physicist in Dyer’s third novel in the Conor Thorn spy series.

Dyer, author of The Ultra Betrayal (2020), delivers a well-researched novel inspired by the true story of the mysterious disappearance of Ettore Majorana, an Italian physicist. Considered by many of his peers a genius in the fields of mathematics and atomic physics, Majorana unexpectedly went missing in March 1938. Dyer portrays him as a tormented soul hoping to find God in an Italian monastery after a failed suicide attempt, taking a new identity as Brother Bini. He’s identified several years later by a plumber who has family ties to Benito Mussolini’s secret police. Word of the physicist’s discovery quickly spreads, and soon operatives from the Vatican, the Nazis, and the Allies are racing to get to him first. Conor Thorn, an agent of the Office of Strategic Services—a CIA precursor—is assigned as lead of the extraction op in Italy. Tensions are high for both the Allies and Axis powers as pressure mounts on both sides to develop the first nuclear weapon. Thorn is joined by MI6 Agent Emily Bright, and their growing romantic relationship is central to the storyline. Several theories have been suggested to explain what happened to the real-life Majorana, and Dyer’s novel creatively presents a blend of hypotheses. Dyer seamlessly incorporates fictional characters and historical figures into the wartime setting to portray imaginative yet conceivable events leading up to the physicist’s surprising fate. However, the brisk spy story he tells also includes occasional emotional turns: Thorn and Bright experience a personal tragedy, and at one point, Majorana insists he’d rather die than help create a weapon of mass destruction and threatens to sabotage weapon development work.

A high-stakes World War II thriller inspired by true events and full of drama and fast-paced action.