The atomic bomb and worse is still around.

I started outlining An Unforgivable Act more than five years ago. It is first a story about revenge, the oldest, strongest and most deadly of human emotions. Second, it is a story about love. I recognize that love and revenge are not new story subjects and Shakespeare and every other author have already waxed on the electricity created by the intersection of these two charged emotions. However, I still find the subject fascinating, both historically and in my own personal life. For example, I still can not decide whether to turn the other cheek or not.

I have always been curious about the development and use of the Atomic bomb. It was a well kept secret. Vice-President Truman was not aware of its development until he became President. You can only imagine his surprise. He probably remarked, “We are developing a what?” I was a young boy in the 1950s when nuclear testing by both Russia and the United States was a competition to see which country could make the biggest nuclear weapon. The film world capitalized on the nuclear race and released many nuclear terror movies. I remember the film Dr. Strangelove, which caricatured all the nuclear development challenges. As a boy, missiles in mid-western silos, movies about nuclear wars and the purchase of fall-out shelters were common table topic debates. And now more than seventy years later, nuclear weapons are still a divisive discussion topic.

From the historical fiction novel An Unforgivable Act by Robert J. Sherwood