Best-selling author Kean (The Disappearing Spoon) tells the forgotten history of the spies and scientists working for the United States who helped sabotage and prevent Adolf Hitler’s scientists (the Uranium Club) from building the atomic bomb. Once the Manhattan Project began to construct their own bomb, it started an offshoot program called the Alsos Mission; participants were referred to as “bastards” because they did not officially belong to any specific military group. Kean offers a chronological telling of the people involved on both the Allied and Axis sides of the conflict. These fascinating characters include former professional baseball player Moe Berg (working for the CIA-precursor Office of Strategic Services), along with physicists Werner Heisenberg and Samuel Goutsmit as well as Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest brother of John F. Kennedy, and his terrible fate during a sabotage mission. The work is rounded out by source material and a summary of the main people involved. VERDICT An exciting read for fans of World War II history, espionage tales, and the development of nuclear weapons.