Author Robert Conroy, 76, died December 30, 2014. He was recently diagnosed with cancer of the thymus.

Conroy specialized in alternate history novels, and won a Sidewise Award for 1942 (2009), set during a version of WWII where the Japanese were more successful in their assault on Pearl Harbor. His first novel was 1901 (1995), and other books include Sidewise Award finalists 1862 (2006), 1945 (2007), Red Inferno: 1945 (2010), Castro’s Bomb (2011), Himmler’s War (2011), and 1920: America’s Greatest War (2013), plus North Reich (2012), Rising Sun (2012), and Liberty 1784: The Second War for Independence (2014). He has two more forthcoming: Germanica and 1882: Custer in Chains.