The Women of Oak Ridge is a compelling dual-timeline story set in the once-secret town of Oak Ridge. Yes, it’s a real-life place, and that adds to the intrigue and tension.
It’s 1979, and Laurel Willett has just arrived in the small Tennessee town of Oak Ridge to stay with her Aunt Mae and conduct research for her PhD in psychology. Her plan is to spend the summer interviewing local residents about their work during World War II, when they were working on what they later discovered was the Manhattan Project–the USA’s atomic weapons programme that led to the end of the war.
Many of the townspeople are happy to talk to her, but her aunt is not.
In 1944, Maebelle Willett has left her coal mining hometown to earn seventy-five dollars month at the Clinton Engineering Works in Oak Ridge. She is assigned to deliver parts and messages at K-25 under conditions of utmost secrecy. Not only are employees not to tell their friends and families where the lie or what they do, but they’re not even allowed to tell each other.
The Women of Oak Ridge makes for compelling reading in both timelines – in the past, as we learn about the conditions of work for the various classes of workers – the women, the Army men, and the Black workers. The present timeline is equally compelling as we’re gradually drawn into the mystery of what Mae did in K-25 and why she’s still unwilling to share her secrets.
I really enjoyed the historical component, and appreciated the way Michelle Shocklee didn’t allow her excellent research to overtake the story. Instead, it is well integrated into the story and doesn’t get more complex than it needs to be (we don’t all need to understand nuclear physics).
The characters are strong, and I particularly enjoyed the subtle faith thread that brought the story together. It’s an excellent novel, with plenty of tension. Recommended for historical fiction readers.
Thanks to Tyndale Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About Michelle Shocklee
Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels including ALL WE THOUGHT WE KNEW, a 2025 Christy Award Finalist; APPALACHIAN SONG, a 2024 Christy Award Finalist; COUNT THE NIGHTS BY STARS, winner of the 2023 Christianity Today Book Award in Fiction; and UNDER THE TULIP TREE, a Christy Award & Selah Award finalist.
As a woman of mixed heritage–her father’s family is Hispanic and her mother’s roots go back to Germany–she has always celebrated diversity and feels it’s important to see the world through the eyes of one another. Learning from the past and changing the future is why she writes historical fiction. With both her sons grown and happily married, Michelle and her husband make their home in Tennessee.
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About Women of Oak Ridge
1944. Maebelle Willett arrives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, eager to begin her new government job and send money home to her impoverished family. She knows little about the work she will be doing, but she’s told it will help America win the war. Not all is what it seems, however. Though Oak Ridge employees are forbidden from discussing their jobs, Mae’s roommate begins sharing disturbing information, then disappears without a trace. Mae desperately attempts to find her but instead comes face-to-face with a life-altering revelation―one that comes at significant cost.
1979. Laurel Willett is a graduate student in Boston when she learns about the history of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where thousands unknowingly worked on the atomic bomb. Intrigued because she knows her Aunt Mae was employed there, Laurel decides to spend the summer with her aunt, hoping to add a family connection to her thesis research. But Mae adamantly refuses to talk about her time in the Secret City. Mae’s friends, however, offer to share their experiences, propelling Laurel on her path to uncovering the truth about a missing woman. As Laurel works to put the pieces together, the hidden pain and guilt Mae has tried so hard to bury comes to light . . . with potentially disastrous consequences.
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Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna has a slew of historical novels available, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. She lives with her family in West Virginia.
