History comes alive in God's Perfect Scar. A survivor of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising finds himself in Auschwitz, working with a woman prisoner to plan and implement a harrowing mass escape. A former Polish lancer turned airborne trooper turned English instructor at the University of Warsaw finds himself targeted by the Kremlin-controlled secret police. Two brothers find themselves conscripted by a pair of ambitious rulers, each itching to fire the first shot in a war that will ensnare soldiers and nurses from America, Britain, New Zealand and Korea. An American priest, a former World War II chaplain, finds himself playing street soccer in Rome and plotting a rescue in Warsaw. Bullets and shrapnel leave lasting scars - as do polio, treachery and guilt. Painstakingly researched, God's Perfect Scar is the story of ordinary people swept up in extraordinary, history-changing upheavals, contending with unrelenting stresses and making life-altering choices. During his research, Johnson learned about Aline Gartner, lost in the mists of time and history. In the pages of God's Perfect Scar, he "brings back to life" this remarkably courageous woman. From Auschwitz to Cracow to Warsaw, London, Moscow, Beijing, Kaesong, Seoul and small town America, God's Perfect Scar takes readers on a journey that provides a different and broader perspective on major happenings that have been shaping history for the last 60 years. As with Johnson's earlier works, Warrior Priest and Fate of the Warriors, the pacing in God's Perfect Scar is brisk, the tension palpable and the outcomes unpredictable.

ADOLF HITLER IS DEAD AND IT'S ONLY 1943

Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Martin Bormann are also dead. And the leader of the assassination plot, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, is the new Chancellor of Germany.

Stauffenberg unleashes Germany's wonder weapons, the Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter, the Arado 234 Blitz Bomber, and the Type 21 super submarine. But it may be too late. The massive Soviet army is marching relentlessly to the west. And the Americans and British are bombing Germany day and night, wrecking its war machine, killing hundreds of thousands, and paving the way for an invasion in 1944.

Germany is running out of time. But it still has one super weapon left, and that's the atomic bomb, originally approved by Hitler in 1934 but abandoned by him in 1940. Professor Werner Heisenberg and his team of nuclear scientists, now decimated by Hitler's anti-Jewish hysteria, are Germany's only hope.

Can Germany snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by unlocking the secrets of the atomic bomb before the scientists of the Manhattan Project? Can this terrible weapon be used against the Americans and the British to force them out of the war, and then smash the Soviet Union? Can Hitler's dream of a thousand-year Reich be achieved even as his ashes lie at the bottom of a lake on the outskirts of Berlin?

In the "August Madness" of 1914, most of Europe was at war. They, of the forgotten Polish Blue Army Air Corp, soared as eagles in their rickety crates, through two wars, their wings straining and guy wires screaming as their machine guns chattered and bombs dropped in support of the ground wars. By a combination of historical facts and fiction the human drama of the times is brought to life through the struggles of a young Polish farm peasant. To avoid Austrian army conscription he immigrated to the United States, but nevertheless became a part of the obscure Canadian-trained, American-immigrant Blue Army. Under the command of the French, they fought the tragically devastating battles of the trenches. Transferred to its newly formed air corps, he became an airman. Facing the German Fokker scourge with each flight, the airman's mortality rate became greater than of the trenches. Most barely lasted weeks, a few became aces. After Armistice, the surprised Blue Army Air Corps was transferred to Poland, now as part of the country's air force. A group of veteran pilots from the American Air Corps also appeared in Poland, volunteered their services, and created the "Kosciuszko Squadron." Russia, shattered by Germany, convulsed by civil war, fell into the grip of the Bolsheviks. Considering that all of Europe was in disarray and professing its intentions to spread the communist revolution throughout the world, the Bolshevik horde crashed on through Poland in the Russo-Polish war of 1920, bent on invading all of Europe. Germany, France and England were too devastated for another war. Only infant Poland stood in the Bolshevik's way. All of Western European civilization was at bay, and perhaps that of the world. Then a miracle happened.

Harry Seymour and Samantha Hazelwood want to get married and build a family. He is a college student from a wealthy New Orleans family, and she is the daughter of an old Virginia family. They could be married without delay, if not for the war that tore the United States apart. With heavy heart, Harry enlists with the Confederacy but hates the thought of fighting his own kin from Connecticut. In the meantime, Sam is recruited to be a spy in Washington.

As the war comes to an end, the two lovers are reunited. Harry is a broken man-financially and psychologically, having faced the terrors of war and lived to tell about them. Still madly in love, Sam welcomes him home; with the help of relatives and a former slave, they rebuild their fortunes during the turbulent Reconstruction. But their troubles are far from over. An old nemesis will not let the war end at Appomattox.

Elliot Seymour is one of Harry's Connecticut cousins, and he finds a way to imprison Sam. He confiscates the lovers' home and uses their former slaves against them. Will Harry and Sam's love survive yet another tragedy? War is hell; it can ruin an entire country, but it can also make warriors out of cowards, heroes out of slaves, and spouses out of lovers-if only good can prevail in the midst of horror.

Cynthia Blair, the fourth owner of China Bank, opens her home in a tangible expression of thanks and support to members of the Pacific Submarine Fleet Force for their extraordinary service to the United States. When former shipmates reunite at Blair Mansion, they unwittingly become involved in the most brazen hijacking attempt the U.S. Navy has ever seen. Lieutenant Commander Charley Jason and Polly Flowers' wedding is set to occur at the mansion the night before inspections will be held on the Piratefish and Minefish submarines. Also coinciding with the wedding festivities is a secret mission designed by Colonel Mark Hong, a Red Chinese officer and agent extraordinaire. Disguised as a bank interne, Hong arrives at Blair Mansion for his training in American banking. After members of his gang clandestinely slip ashore, they immediately begin terrorizing the residents of Chinatown and proceed step-by-step toward their target. Late on the night of the wedding, the gang takes hostages and seizes control of a submarine at Treasure Island. Chief Gunnersmate Carruther and Lieutenant Sylvester of the Piratefish interrupt the hijacking with their own counterattack. in the midst of the explosive action in the waters off the Golden Gate?