What if the US hadn’t entered World War II and England had surrendered to the Germans on 2 February 1941? Within this alternative history, Deighton has written a murder mystery focusing on how a Scotland Yard detective tries to solve a murder and keeping the institution of Scotland Yard alive, even under Nazi leadership. Meanwhile, his former mentor and current assistant is still stalwartly opposing the Germans. The murder investigation leads into a twisting plot with four factions, two within the German regime itself, struggling to capture British A-bomb data and to free the King of England from the Tower of London. Throughout, the American government is more interested in playing politics than doing what is honorable. Although the relationship development between the characters is haphazard, the overall result is a compelling adventure story bordering on espionage.

What if the US hadn’t entered World War II and England had surrendered to the Germans on 2 February 1941? Within this alternative history, Deighton has written a murder mystery focusing on how a Scotland Yard detective tries to do his job, do what is best for his country, and survive under German occupation. Recovering stolen atomic secrets, freeing the King of England from the Tower of London, and infighting between the German military and the German SS all add to the adventure.

http://home.comcast.net/~ktoonen/summ... ( )

Minireview: The murder of a nuclear physicist in Nazi-occupied 1941 London sets off even deadlier power struggles both between and within the Wehrmacht and the SS, which the British Resistance tries to exploit to rescue the imprisoned King George. Caught in the middle is skilled Scotland Yard detective Douglas Archer, who needs to convince all sides to keep him alive while he investigates the murder. The plot is engagingly intricate and complicated, and much of the imagery of occupied Britain is captivating. The characters, however, seemed sketched out around stock mystery novel figures, which kept me reading from a distance. ( )

This depicts a fascinating and chilling Nazi-controlled Britain following the defeat and surrender of UK forces in February 1941 and the execution of Churchill and incarceration of the King. I would have welcomed it if more of this was in the foreground as the I found the minutiae of the actual plot difficult to follow. The characters I also found rather uninteresting. ( )

One of the great alt hist novels - fantastic detail and byzantine plot.