JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Will Damron’s subtly expressive voice is a good match for this well-written account of the directed killing of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, the man who spearheaded the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lehr’s work is a nice biography of not only Yamamoto but also of the commander of the U.S. mission, Army Air Forces Major John Mitchell, and several of the pilots he chose to accompany him. As was the case for the Battle of Midway, U.S. Forces used decoded Japanese messages to plan the mission, which took place in April 1943. While he sounds dispassionate, Damron’s delivery is quite subtle with both narrative and quotes. He makes this production engaging. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
06/01/2020
In this meticulously researched history, journalist Lehr (The Birth of a Movement) chronicles the lives of U.S. Army Air Forces major John W. Mitchell and Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Isoroku Yamamoto from their childhoods to their “fatal face-off” in 1943. An ace pilot from Enid, Miss., Mitchell commanded the 339th Fighter Squadron on Guadalcanal Island. In April 1943, he led 15 other pilots on a mission to assassinate Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Vilified by the American press as a “hate-filled warmonger,” Yamamoto emerges in Lehr’s nuanced portrayal as a “reluctant warrior” who hoped to force a peace settlement with the U.S. Sixteen months after Pearl Harbor, American code breakers decrypted a message detailing Yamamoto’s plans to tour Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands. Mitchell and his squad flew more than 800 miles round trip from Guadalcanal to shoot down the admiral’s bomber over Bougainville Island, losing only one American pilot in the aerial attack. Lehr packs the narrative with intimate looks at both men’s personal lives, debates among U.S. and Japanese leaders over military strategy, and the history of “targeted kill” operations. Even the most dedicated WWII buffs will learn something new from this granular account. Agent: Richard Abate. (June)
From the Publisher
"Dead Reckoning is the riveting story of how the U.S. sought to kill Japanese naval admiral Isoroku Yamamato for his diabolical masterminding of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Major John Mitchell and his avenger flyboys emerges in these pages as true-blue military heroes of the Greatest Generation ilk. The amount of new research Lehr has undertaken about Operation Vengeance is breathtaking. Highly recommended!" — Douglas Brinkley
"Lehr is a gifted raconteur….Many readers will know how the intercept turns out (for the uninitiated, the book’s title…is a giveaway), but Mr. Lehr’s telling of it has the excitement of a Steve McQueen car chase." — Wall Street Journal
"Dead Reckoning tells this white-knuckle tale and sheds new light on an important, albeit little-remembered turning point in the war....[Lehr] maintains palpable tension throughout. It is a surpassingly improbable feat that these young Americans flyboys accomplished, led by ace pilot and mission planner Major Johnny Mitchell." — USA Today
"Dead Reckoning is a thrilling true story of courage, honor and derring-do that builds to a tremendous climax. Among Dick Lehr’s many gifts is a rare ability to depict world-shaking events on a human scale. This is a master work of narrative history." — Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La and Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11
"An evenhanded history of the hunt for the mastermind of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor....A sympathetic, exciting portrait of both American and Japanese warriors caught up in 'targeted-kill operations.'" — Kirkus Reviews
"Lehr packs the narrative with intimate looks at both men’s personal lives, debates among U.S. and Japanese leaders over military strategy, and the history of “targeted kill” operations. Even the most dedicated WWII buffs will learn something new from this granular account." — Publishers Weekly
“Lehr’s skills as a journalist dig deep into the lives of Yamamoto and Mitchell, shining light on the public and private life of each. Anyone interested in World War II, and especially the war in the Pacific, will find this account fascinating.” — Library Journal
Mitchell Zuckoff
"Dead Reckoning is a thrilling true story of courage, honor and derring-do that builds to a tremendous climax. Among Dick Lehr’s many gifts is a rare ability to depict world-shaking events on a human scale. This is a master work of narrative history."
USA Today
"Dead Reckoning tells this white-knuckle tale and sheds new light on an important, albeit little-remembered turning point in the war....[Lehr] maintains palpable tension throughout. It is a surpassingly improbable feat that these young Americans flyboys accomplished, led by ace pilot and mission planner Major Johnny Mitchell."
Wall Street Journal
"Lehr is a gifted raconteur….Many readers will know how the intercept turns out (for the uninitiated, the book’s title…is a giveaway), but Mr. Lehr’s telling of it has the excitement of a Steve McQueen car chase."
Douglas Brinkley
"Dead Reckoning is the riveting story of how the U.S. sought to kill Japanese naval admiral Isoroku Yamamato for his diabolical masterminding of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Major John Mitchell and his avenger flyboys emerges in these pages as true-blue military heroes of the Greatest Generation ilk. The amount of new research Lehr has undertaken about Operation Vengeance is breathtaking. Highly recommended!"
Wall Street Journal
"Lehr is a gifted raconteur….Many readers will know how the intercept turns out (for the uninitiated, the book’s title…is a giveaway), but Mr. Lehr’s telling of it has the excitement of a Steve McQueen car chase."
USA Today
"Dead Reckoning tells this white-knuckle tale and sheds new light on an important, albeit little-remembered turning point in the war....[Lehr] maintains palpable tension throughout. It is a surpassingly improbable feat that these young Americans flyboys accomplished, led by ace pilot and mission planner Major Johnny Mitchell."
Library Journal
04/03/2020
There are many books written about World War II, but few have focused on the targeted mission that killed Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1883–1943). Lehr (The Fence) has pulled together historical and personal documents that shed light on two of the major actors of the mission: U.S. Army Major John Mitchell (1914–95) and Yamamoto himself. Yamamoto, the architect behind the attack on Pearl Harbor, was a military genius with a complicated personal life. Mitchell, on the other hand, was an ace American pilot and married to the girl next door. More of a biography than a strict look at the military confrontation, the text provides an intimate look at the war in the Pacific told through the eyes of the men leading up to their fateful intersection. Though the mission itself was a success from the American point of view, the anguish felt by the Japanese people is also carefully explored. VERDICT Lehr's skills as a journalist dig deep into the lives of Yamamoto and Mitchell, shining light on the public and private life of each. Anyone interested in World War II, and especially the war in the Pacific, will find this account fascinating. [See Prepub Alert, 11/4/19.]—Danielle Williams, Univ. of Evansville
JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Will Damron’s subtly expressive voice is a good match for this well-written account of the directed killing of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, the man who spearheaded the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lehr’s work is a nice biography of not only Yamamoto but also of the commander of the U.S. mission, Army Air Forces Major John Mitchell, and several of the pilots he chose to accompany him. As was the case for the Battle of Midway, U.S. Forces used decoded Japanese messages to plan the mission, which took place in April 1943. While he sounds dispassionate, Damron’s delivery is quite subtle with both narrative and quotes. He makes this production engaging. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-03-19
An evenhanded history of the hunt for the mastermind of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
Nearly a year and a half after the U.S. declared war on Japan, the Army Air Forces would finally catch up with Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, in the skies over the then-Japanese-held islands of Rabaul and Bougainville. Lehr—a professor of journalism at Boston University who has written two books on Whitey Bulger—weaves together two touching stories: the tale of Maj. John Mitchell, who was an ace flyboy chosen to lead the mission, homesick for his new bride, as well as the story of Mitchell’s team; and the chronicle of Yamamoto, who, as a young cadet, had seen his country prevail against the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and became a forward-thinking officer who attended Harvard, worked two postings in Washington, D.C., and—significantly—grasped that aircraft carriers were the weapon of the future. Yamamoto also “sensed…from a mix of press accounts and military intelligence, that the United States was waking up—that following the deadly Pearl Harbor debacle, instead of curling up into a fetal position, she was climbing to her feet, raring to fight and seek vengeance. [He] had no way of knowing its full extent, but the winter of 1942 saw the [U.S.] hastily and effectively establish its wartime footing.” By 1943, he was nearing 60, with a wife and children as well as a longtime geisha lover to whom he wrote passionate letters. Refreshingly, Lehr gets beyond the hate-filled, racist propaganda on both sides to give an honest appraisal of the protagonists, especially Yamamoto, whose logic in attacking Pearl Harbor was to “induce [America] to settle for peace with Japan.” Once the Americans cracked the Japanese code, Midway became “Yamamoto’s lament.”
A sympathetic, exciting portrait of both American and Japanese warriors caught up in “targeted-kill operations.” (b/w photos)
