A few years back, while browsing through my local bookstore, I picked up a novel titled RESURRECTION DAY written by an author I had never heard of before. Since the cover of this paperback promised political intrigue and more, I flipped the book over and read the back-cover blurb, growing all the more intrigued by the story.

Unfortunately, as so often happens, I brought this book home and nonchalantly placed it on one of two shelves that I reserve within my vast collection of bookcases for the UNREADS. And there it stayed until about a week ago. I was looking for a new book to read, having just finished a business related book that I read for work, and was in the mood for something different, something with punch, a book that I could get lost in for awhile.

Let me tell you, author Brendan DuBois certainly delivered on all of the above. RESURRECTION DAY is the story of what history would have been like had the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 not been resolved as peacefully as it had been more than four decades ago. Instead, the world was rocked by another war of nuclear weapons, less than twenty years after the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is a tale of angry Generals disobeying JFK's orders to stand down, a tale of nuclear devastation across most of the territory of the Soviet Union, a tale of a war-stricken United States, badly crippled but still a major player on the world scene...a tale of a people, once free, now living under a state of Martial Law, severe censorship and a strict military government that nobody trusts.

Enter reporter Carl Landry, working for the Boston Globe, a man who was in the US Army when war erupted over Cuba but stationed half-way across the world as an Advisor assigned to South Vietnam. Carl didn't witness the destruction of Washington DC, Miami, San Diego and certain portions of New York City. He wasn't there to mourn with his countrymen a President who had died when the White House was incinerated. Instead, he was overseas, listening with other worried soldiers over a short-wave radio as the insanity of a thermonuclear exchange ravaged parts of the Earth. In the aftermath, Carl was stationed in California, to help in what the government called a Rescue & Relief Effort but what was really the US Army's attempt to restore order to a goodly portion of the country's largest state filled with terrified citizens trying to escape the destruction of San Diego.

Carl is a simple man, a good reporter, trying to make his way in the newspaper business without ruffling any feathers. Nearly ten years have passed since the United States was ravaged and weakened by war, and Carl's normal life has carried on without incident. Then one day, he is assigned to a crime scene, nothing new there, but the situation gets interesting when a mysterious old Army Vet named Merl Sawson stumbles up to him at a crime scene and mumbles something to the effect that he holds the secrets to the country's future. Carl listens to the old man's words, the two arrange a meeting to discuss things further but the old man never shows up. Carl forgets about the old man, dismissing the encounter as nothing more than the incoherent ramblings of a sick old vet, until he is sent to cover another crime scene, this time a murder...with the victim identified as one Merl Sawson.

From there, Carl stumbles into the story of a lifetime. The people surrounding Merl Sawson begin to either die or disappear. The names listed on the small piece of paper that Sawson had shoved into his hand during their initial encounter turns up some very interesting facts. The people who control The Boston Globe suddenly want Carl off the story. A beautiful young British reporter suddenly begins to court Carl's favor. Strange men begin showing up at Carl's apartment, the people in his neighborhood telling him of their illegal searches while Carl is at work or away from home. Things begin to look bleak for Carl but only because of his refusal to give up this story. A story that he feels deep down in his heart needs to be told, a story whose truth will shock the world, a story that he owes to a former comrade in arms, a man who had stumbled up to him at a crime scene muttering about great secrets and government conspiracies, but had been mysteriously murdered soon afterward.

RESURRECTION DAY is a tense novel with a strong plot, some very gripping plot-twists and overflowing with sub-plots galore. Brendan DuBois masterfully intertwines the real history behind the Cuban Missile Crisis and a plausible version of what could have happened if cooler heads had not prevailed during those dark and worrisome days. Carl Landry ends up tagging along with his newfound British friend on a government sponsored tour of the New York Restricted Zone. He learns of a secret society, living underground, in the dark recesses of the city, unwilling to leave their home, trying to make a new life after the war. He learns of a sinister plan by the British Government, close allies of the US ever since the war, to invade what is left of our once-grand country with a quick series of military strikes to be carried out with precision by units of elite British Special Forces. He learns that he has become a major target, a man with a bulls-eye on his back, but with no idea of which faction wants him eliminated. In a mad rush across several Northeastern states, searching out people whose names appeared on that small scrap of paper handed to him by the mysterious Merl Sawson, trying to outwit his unidentified pursuers and stay alive in the process, trying to use his brains and his former army training to make it through the next few days alive, trying to uncover the story that has had him obsessed ever since his editor tried to sweep it under the rug.

A grand old book of alternate history, RESURRECTION DAY surely pleases and kept me turning the pages well past midnight during several nights this past week. Suddenly, I find myself searching out more titles with the words, "By Brendan DuBois," on the front cover. Treat yourself to this one, folks, you will not be disappointed.