This book is a continually surprising read. It is set in the era of Kennedy's leadership in aerospace and the race to put a man on the moon and bring him back. Jerry File Jr., the author, does not bog the reader down in aerospace. Rather, he scoots the story along through strongly built characters in human action, touching solidly on aerospace through fiction that reveals exciting scenarios that might have been. It's 1952. WWII is over. In an upper middle class apartment building in New York City, lives a six year old, dangerous, psychopathic boy named John Black, and a man, Heinz Saretzki, a genius and former, reluctant Nazi who had been compelled, by circumstances beyond his control, to serve as Hitler's, personal, secret, chess tutor, and anonymous auditor of all mechanical engineering plans for the Third Reich, even the armament work of Speer, and rocket work of von Braun. After being captured from a German U boat in the Caribbean by a famous Nazi hunter, surviving POW camp in the Deep South, and finding the love of his life, in America, and having an ideal son with her, Heinz discovers his forthcoming, American fortune is at risk of being stolen through lies going back decades, and other elements he cannot see. While the story unfolds through Kennedy, von Braun, Speer incarcerated in Spandau, J Edgar Hoover, the United States Senate, and more, John Black is there, the risks he presents ever boiling, quietly, as if on the back of a stove. Then, there is the soaring love affair of Heinz and his beloved wife. Jerry File Jr. proves, again, he is professional at literary-level romance. He weaves it in, effortlessly, and like butter in a recipe, it richens an already fine novel. During and after the war, Heinz must dance on a razor blade. Post war, with trillions of inter-generational, aerospace revenues and income at stake, his greatest nemesis is right upon him, and then he and his progeny must reckon with powerful forces, inside the US Congress, who are incentivized by greed, and endowed with great power. MEET JOHN BLACK is universal and complex. While it might be called a thriller, it exhilarates through human action worthy of literature. It reveals capabilities of psychopathy; higher love and romance between a man and woman; the coldness of heartbreaking loss; justice delayed; and hope, all in an excellently crafted story. "Jerry File Jr. has his own unique voice, and he knows how to tell a spirited story that kept me turning the pages. He also knows more about politics than a good many politicians. He's got an eye for the telling detail, too, and he knows what people sound like...this man's the real deal." Steve Yarbrough, acclaimed author and Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing Professor, Emerson College, Boston, MA, concerning Jerry's powerful short story, The Short Happy Political Life of Amos McCary.
About the Author: About Jerry File Jr. and his writing, acclaimed, Mississippi-born author, Steve Yarbrough, said, "(he) has his own unique voice, and he knows how to tell a spirited story that kept me turning the pages. He also knows more about politics than a good many politicians. He's got an eye for the telling detail, too, and he knows what people sound like...this man's the real deal. He is also the author of The Short Happy Political Life of Amos McCary, a collection of literary fiction, short stories, including the widely loved, universal coming of age story, The Sacred Hunt. Jerry was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi. He graduated Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi, studied in Virginia, and graduated The Else School of Management at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi with the MBA degree. He studied the short story under the great, Mississippi-born author, Barry Hannah, at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).