November 1940, and Lieutenant Daniel Nichols, a former pacifist turned crusader, is wounded taking part in the Royal Navy’s carrier born air raid on the Italian Battle Fleet in Taranto.
Six months later Sándor Braun, a British double agent, escorts a Japanese delegation around Taranto and discovers that they are planning a similar attack. But what will the target be?
Nichols, now unable to fly, joins the Naval Intelligence Division, despite growing rumours that his nerve has gone.
He debriefs Braun in London and sees the implications of his discovery. Britain cannot afford to suffer further setbacks in the Far East.
Nichols convinces his superior officer, Ian Fleming, to allow him to travel to Lisbon in a bid to identify the target before it’s too late. The former airman uses the rumours about his lack of moral fibre as cover and poses as a deserter, with information to sell about the Taranto raid.
Braun helps Nichols to gain the confidence of German and Japanese Intelligence officers — and he is recruited to fly to Hawaii and spy on the US Navy.
Convinced that the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor, Nichols travels to America to inform the FBI, but his warnings fall on deaf ears.
Nichols takes matters into his own hands and ventures to Hawaii, with the intention of preventing a catastrophe.
But will the Englishman’s intervention prove too little, too late?
Rising Tide by Alan Bardos is available now as an ebook.
Read Alan’s feature about the spy and double agent who helped inspire his novel and who linked the two air attacks.
