Dick Lehr will present a book talk to comm unity attendees followed by a brief Q&\;A. Books will be available for purchase\, and Lehr will sit down for a book signing. A portion of book sa le proceeds benefits BPL. BPL&rsquo\;s program is supported by the Friends of the Bentonville Library. \;
\n\n
Dead Reckoning: The Story of How Johnny Mitchell and His Fighter Pilots To ok on Admiral Yamamoto and Avenged Pearl Harbor
\n&nbs p\;&ldquo\;AIR RAID\, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NO DRILL.&rdquo\; At 7:58 a.m. on December 7\, 1941\, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history\, as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on U.S. bases on Haw aii. In a little over two hours\, more than 2\,400 Americans were dead\, p ropelling the U.S.&rsquo\;s entry into World War II.
\nDead Reckonin g \;is the epic true story of the high-stakes operation undertaken six teen months later to avenge that deadly strike &ndash\; a longshot mission hatched hastily at the U.S. base on Guadalcanal. Expertly crafting this " hunt for Bin Laden"-style WWII story\, \;New York Times \;bestsell ing author Dick Lehr recreates the tension-filled events leading up to the climactic clash in the South Pacific skies &ndash\; frontline moments loa ded with xenophobia\, spycraft\, sacrifice and broken hearts.
\nLehr goes behind the scenes at Station Hypo on Hawaii\, where U.S. Navy code b reakers first discovered exactly where and when to find Admiral Yamamoto\, on April 18\, 1943\, and then chronicles in dramatic detail the nerve-wra cking mission to kill him. He focuses on Army Air Force Major John W. Mitc hell\, the ace fighter pilot from the tiny hamlet of Enid\, Mississippi wh o was tasked with conceiving a flight route\, literally to the second\, fo r the only U.S. fighter plane on Guadalcanal capable of reaching Yamamoto hundreds of miles away &ndash\; the new twin-engine P-38 Lightning with it s fabled &ldquo\;cone of fire.&rdquo\;
\nGiven unprecedented access to Mitchell&rsquo\;s personal papers and hundreds of private letters\, Leh r reveals for the first time the full story of Mitchell&rsquo\;s wartime e xploits up to the face-off with Yamamoto\, along with those of key America n pilots Mitchell chose for the momentous mission: Rex Barber\, Thomas Lan phier Jr.\, Besby Holmes\, and Ray Hine. The spotlight also shines on thei r enemy target &ndash\;Admiral Yamamoto\, the enigmatic\, charismatic comm ander in chief of Japan&rsquo\;s Combined Fleet\, whose complicated feelin gs about the U.S.&mdash\;he studied at Harvard&mdash\;add rich complexity. In this way \;Dead Reckoning \;offers at once a fast-paced recoun ting of a crucial turning point in the Pacific war and keenly drawn portra its of its two main protagonists: Isoroku Yamamoto\, the architect of Pear l Harbor\, and John Mitchell\, the architect of the Yamamoto&rsquo\;s demi se.
\n
About Dick
\nDick Lehr is a professor of journalis m at Boston University. From 1985 to 2003\, he was a reporter at the \ ;Boston Globe\, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative re porting and won numerous regional and national journalism awards. He serve d as the \;Globe's \;legal affairs reporter\, magazine and feature writer\, and as a longtime member of the newspaper's investigative report ing unit\, the Spotlight Team. Before that\, Lehr\, who is also an attorne y\, was a reporter at \;The Hartford Courant.
\nLehr is the auth or of \;The Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide\, a non-fiction narrative about the worst known case of police brutality in Bo ston\, which was an Edgar Award finalist for best non-fiction. He is coaut hor of the New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner \;Black Ma ss: Whitey Bulger\, the FBI and a Devil's Deal\, and its sequel\, \;Wh itey: The Life of America's Most Notorious Mob Boss.
\nLehr was a Jo hn S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in 1991-1992. He liv es outside Boston with his wife and four children.
\nhttps://bentonvill elibrary.libnet.info/event/8285411 URL;VALUE=URI:https://bentonvillelibrary.libnet.info/event/8285411 ATTACH:https://static.libnet.info/images/events/bentonvillelibrary/DickLeh r-Harper-AuthorPhoto.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR