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The Jesus Factor
What If The Atomic Bomb Doesn’t Work?
The Strategic Air Command’s nuclear bombers are airborne. Six hundred Minutemen missile sites are switched on, prepared for attack. The U.S. nuclear submarine fleet is submerged and operating under sealed orders.
Across the North Pole, Russia’s missile countdown is holding at two hours from zero. And Red China has mobilized and gone to Condition Yellow.
Then, with the world only hours away from nuclear destruction, U.S. Senator Hugh McGavin asks: What if the atomic bomb doesn’t work?
What if it never worked?
This startling new novel asks these questions – and more. It dramatizes the futile treadmill of the arms race; probes the collective guilt of the men who decided to drop the first atomic bomb against Japan; and leads again and again to the question:
How do you know the atomic bomb works? Did you ever see one go off? Or have you merely seen newsreels that could have been faked?
The Jesus Factor moves from Washington to Hiroshima, from Moscow to a tiny island named Tinian in the South Pacific, where the young Hugh McGavin flew the first atomic bombing mission in 1945. Now he puts the pieces of a fantastic puzzle together and asks:
Why is the Jesus Factor the best kept secret in human history?
The Strategic Air Command’s nuclear bombers are airborne. Six hundred Minutemen missile sites are switched on, prepared for attack. The U.S. nuclear submarine fleet is submerged and operating under sealed orders.
Across the North Pole, Russia’s missile countdown is holding at two hours from zero. And Red China has mobilized and gone to Condition Yellow.
Then, with the world only hours away from nuclear destruction, U.S. Senator Hugh McGavin asks: What if the atomic bomb doesn’t work?
What if it never worked?
This startling new novel asks these questions – and more. It dramatizes the futile treadmill of the arms race; probes the collective guilt of the men who decided to drop the first atomic bomb against Japan; and leads again and again to the question:
How do you know the atomic bomb works? Did you ever see one go off? Or have you merely seen newsreels that could have been faked?
The Jesus Factor moves from Washington to Hiroshima, from Moscow to a tiny island named Tinian in the South Pacific, where the young Hugh McGavin flew the first atomic bombing mission in 1945. Now he puts the pieces of a fantastic puzzle together and asks:
Why is the Jesus Factor the best kept secret in human history?
- GenresFiction
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Edwin Corley
15 books5 followersaka Patrick Buchanan, David Harper
Edwin Ray Corley was born on October 22nd, 1931, in Bayonne, New Jersey, and passed away on November 7th, 1981, in Gulfport, Mississippi. During the intervening 50 years, his career varied from that of an underage Air Force staff sergeant to a carnival fire-eater to a vice-president of a leading advertising agency.
Edwin Ray Corley was born on October 22nd, 1931, in Bayonne, New Jersey, and passed away on November 7th, 1981, in Gulfport, Mississippi. During the intervening 50 years, his career varied from that of an underage Air Force staff sergeant to a carnival fire-eater to a vice-president of a leading advertising agency.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 1, 2011
Somewhat ironically for a book that posits that nuclear bombs don't work when dropped from aeroplanes or launched in missiles, this is a book that builds up hugely to a major damp squib. There isn't really much to this book apart from the suggestion that nukes don't work, a notion trailed prominently on the front and back covers, incidentally, yet Corley's story builds up to this huge secret over the course of 150-200 pages. Then it's quickly explained how the trick was done, and everything is swiftly wrapped up in a non-dramatic fashion. Overall, this wasn't exciting or particularly enjoyable, hanging on for the sole reason that the details of some second-rate conspiracy theory nonsense might be revealed. Bah!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2026
The first book I ever stayed up all night to finish. I was 12. My dad had recommended it to me. I think this was the book that made me a lifelong reader. So many worlds out there. 50+ years later I usually have 3 books going at once; physical copy, ebook, and audible. The 5 stars are for being THE gateway to a good habit.
July 16, 2024
STILL great after 30 years!!
I read this years(!) ago and got a hankering to read it again, just to see...
After all these years the writing, the imagination and the possibilities still hold up solidly! Thanks, Edwin!
I read this years(!) ago and got a hankering to read it again, just to see...
After all these years the writing, the imagination and the possibilities still hold up solidly! Thanks, Edwin!
March 15, 2026
I remember reading this 40 years ago back in high school (have no idea why seeing Nagasaki on a map brought it to mind today) and the question it asked (What if it [the atomic bomb] never worked?) blowing my mind. I still remember my stomach and various sphincters clenching as I read the book, hahahah! It would be fun to reread this "today" (assuming I can find a decent copy somewhere) and see how it has held up over time.
(I gave this "review" a "date read" for my own purposes. Once I find a copy, I will issue a "real review" after rereading it.)
(I gave this "review" a "date read" for my own purposes. Once I find a copy, I will issue a "real review" after rereading it.)
January 10, 2020
Although a heavy topic... this story is original and explores the nuclear bomb in a whole new concept. Short, easy paperback that can be read in a day. If you want something completely different... give this a shot.
October 30, 2018
Very thought-provoking.
May 3, 2021
I thought it was a great book! Nothing we were told about history is true. So this is a very thought provoking book!
Your government would never lie to you, right?
Your government would never lie to you, right?
June 7, 2022
An interesting story, clearly showing a depth of research and good pacing.
Because the book was falling apart, I've just put it in the paper recycling.
Because the book was falling apart, I've just put it in the paper recycling.
March 1, 2012
I read this in my early teens - pretty much before I knew that Counterfactual Historical Fiction and Alternate History were any kind of Thing. It does read like yr average Airport Novel (if you know what I mean and I think you do...), but plays some interesting games with the past and the novel's present (which from the perspective of the 21st Century is now its own kind of alternate history). As a WWII buff, I found it to be clever and really enjoyable - it still holds up. Bonus phun fact - published in 1970, the novel anticipates the still unacknowledged-in-public fact of the Israeli nuclear arsenal.
October 12, 2011
Entertaining fiction book. It seems to have very real descriptions of what it would have been like to be in the group that learned/trained/dropped the first atom bombs. It is somewhat disturbing ending though. It did catch me off guard a bit, but I like that in a book.
August 13, 2009
What if the bomb did not work?
October 13, 2011
If the cover of the book hadn't given away the whole thing, this pleasant little Cold War conspiracy book would have been pleasanter.
October 27, 2011
A friend sent me this book and it was really different. It seems truthful but it is fiction about the atomic bomb and the secrets of our elected officials.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews