DESPOT

On President Putin’s 70th birthday, November 7, 2022, the most horrific act of mass murder in recorded history occurred. On that day Moscow was obliterated by an enormous hydrogen bomb, killing fourteen million people including Putin and all the high ranking Russian leaders. There seemed to be no doubt the bomb was one of two made by the Russians in the early 1960s that were the largest hydrogen bombs ever built. The first bomb, the infamous ‘Tsar Bomba’ was tested back in 1961 and had a yield of 58 megatons. The second bomb, which Russia never acknowledged existing, was secretly stored in an underground bunker where it remained safely and eventually forgotten until it was found missing in May 2022. As to how the bomb was stolen and transported into a deep abandoned subway tunnel under Moscow, that remained a mystery. The assumption was that Ukrainian conscripts were responsible for the theft back in 1989, but there was no firm proof, and all those supposedly responsible were now deceased. The Russian and USA authorities were convinced the bomb was detonated by a rogue senior FBI agent of Ukrainian descent, Peter Kanowsky. They believed after he learned the location of the bomb he decided to detonate it in retaliation for all the oppression and crimes Russia had committed upon Ukraine over the years. And, that is the story contained in my previous novel The Forgotten Bomb. But what if Peter didn’t do it? What if Ukraine wasn’t even involved? What if someone else was responsible and if so, who would commit such a terrible crime and why would they do it. That is what this novel DESPOT is all about. It is the story of the people trying to establish who actually was responsible for setting off the bomb that killed those millions of people and to prove it so they can stop those responsible before they can use nuclear weapons again. And most importantly, to assure all those responsible pays for their appalling crime.