Review: Boomerang Will Not Return by David Crane

A time-bending, history-shaping novel of wartime bravery in a sci-fi frame, Boomerang Will Not Return by David Crane is an original and well-penned adventure. Combine a seemingly simple Air Force mission with a once-in-a-lifetime astral event, and the result is a generation-spanning survival thriller with the highest stakes imaginable.

Deana Crown and Linda March are dominant protagonists who mirror one another’s heroics in both the past and present, fighting to prevent the Nazis from getting their hands on six nukes, and working to prevent World War 3 from breaking out with Russia in the present day. This dual plotline means there is never a dull moment, and the intertwined fates of these stories is an impressive narrative achievement. Bouncing between Russia, Germany, and two different timelines is a tall order, but Crane puppeteers this story with a delicate touch.

As is often a complaint with female characters described through a male gaze, the default description is too often physical appearance and sexualization, but there is also extensive character development in the case of Crown, though less so with March. Crown is a fearless pilot, using her razor-sharp mind and elite training to beat Nazis senseless and wiggle out of an endless stream of tight squeezes in the Fatherland of the 40s. Hartman, the other protagonist in the wrong time, manages to enmesh himself with the enemy, as all great spies can, and cleverly prevents the nuclear victory of the Nazis and a complete rewriting of history.

Seeing some characters solely in the past or present, with others spanning both storylines, namely Stugel and Hartman, is a strong reminder of just how recent the horrors of World War 2 truly are. This overlap also provides a fascinating character with endless potential for reflection – a nonagenarian who has had seven decades to ruminate on the events detailed in the previous chapters.

Paradox is an implicit part of time-travel novels and movies alike, but Crane does a great job of explaining and navigating this common stumbling block of the genre. The explanation of Germany’s early nuclear development, as we know it, which was subsequently stolen by the United States, being a result of this fictional timeline, ties the story up with a tidy bow, for example. The narration also addresses the potential paradoxes and future impacts of the characters’ actions, so while there are some plot threads that could be pulled loose, most temporal paradoxes have been considered.

From a purely editorial perspective, there is a tendency to over-explain the significance of plot developments – a confident author must give readers a bit more credit to piece together events and their narrative impact. The technical editing is clean, with the occasional extra preposition or grammatical slip, but there is general consistency throughout. The dialogue occasionally stumbles out of a colloquial tone, specifically when German soldiers speak in English, but these instances are small hiccups in an otherwise solid novel.

A high-stakes and original thriller, this ambitious book will be a new favorite of historical fiction and sci-fi fans alike.