SS-GB: Len Deighton

SS-GB is an alternate history in which England has been invaded by Germany. 

Summary from the flyleaf (dust jacket) of my edition:

1941, and England invaded – and defeated – by the Germans...

The King is a hostage in the tower, the Queen and Princesses have fled to Australia, Churchill has been executed by a firing squad, Englishmen are being deported to work in German factories and the dreaded SS is in charge of Scotland Yard. London is in shock. The very look of daily life is a walking nightmare of German uniforms, artifacts, regulations. There are collaborators. There are profiteers. But there are others working in hope, in secret, and desperate danger, against the invader. And still others are living strangely ambiguous lives – none more so than Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer ("Archer of the yard" as the press like to call him), trying to maintain a peculiarly, almost sacredly, British institution under a Nazi chief.

At the start of the story, Archer is working on what looks like a routine murder case, working under Gruppenführer Fritz Kellerman of the SS. However, that case leads him into encounters with people in the Resistance and he soon has a new assignment, working under an enemy of Kellerman's, Standartenführer Huth, also part of the SS, but under orders from Himmler. 

The people in the resistance who contact him want to rescue the King from the Tower of London and move him to the US. The powers in the US don't want the King to be in North America at all. And there are groups of Germans who are willing to help with any attempt to move the King out the UK. The plot has many twists and turns, and you never know who is trustworthy and who is not. 

My Thoughts:

I have mentioned often on this blog that Len Deighton is one of my favorite authors. I love his writing. This book is no exception. This book is more like his Nameless Spy series in that many of the characters remain a mystery to the reader (or at least to this one). In the Bernard Samson series of nine books you get to know the characters much more. 

Many of Deighton's novels are set in Germany, during the Cold War.  He has a great depth of knowledge of German history, including the years during World War II, so I trust his descriptions of the various German organizations, including the SS, the Gestapo, and the Wehrmacht (military). I find it really hard to keep up with all the military and other titles for the German characters, which is a problem I have with a lot of World War II novels. But that is not the author's fault.

This is a pretty depressing novel; it feels very real and scary. At about 3/4 of the way through I was sure that the story was not going to end well. I was only half right. The ending is ambiguous but hopeful. Nevertheless, I am so glad that I finally read this book, which has been on my TBR pile for 13 years.

We started watching the TV miniseries adaptation of this book (from 2017)  a couple of days after I finished reading the book. It was interesting to see this approach to the book. In the two episodes I have seen so far, it is pretty close to the book, and I like the actor playing Douglas Archer. 

Apparently there are many books depicting an alternate ending to World War II where the Nazis win the war. I have read The Man in the High Castle by Philip Dick, but I have not yet read Fatherland by Robert Harris. This Wikipeda article lists many such depictions in literature and film.

I liked this assessment from Mike Ripley's review at Shots Magazine:

Len Deighton’s SS-GB is a remarkable thriller, starting as a whodunit, morphing into a spy story and then a conspiracy thriller with global implications, but ultimately it is a novel about a decent man trying to do good job of upholding the law even as his world crumbles around him. 

The Man in the High Castle: Philip K. Dick

I have been meaning to read Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle for years, but I finally got motivated and bought a copy when I watched the first season of the TV adaptation, produced by Amazon Studios. The book was not what I expected, especially based on the TV episodes.

In The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick creates a world in which the Axis countries won World War II and the United States has been split into three sections. The Western coast is under Japanese rule, the East coast is governed by the Germans, and in between is a neutral zone, sort of. The year is 1962 and the story starts out in the Japanese sector.

There are elements of science fiction in this novel, but most of all it is just a story about an alternate version of the world following World War II. Other authors have written books along the same lines; two that I know of are Len Deighton's SS-GB and Robert Harris's Fatherland. I have not read either of those. Jo Walton wrote a trilogy of books based on a similar idea. The Small Change books consist of  Farthing, Ha’penny, and Half a Crown, which I have read and enjoyed. That series is in a universe where Britain made peace with Hitler before the US entered in the war.

The Man in the High Castle has three story lines, which only touch each other tangentially. One centers around Tagomi, a Japanese trade official. Two men, one from Japan and one from Germany, are trying to meet with him to allow the transfer of some information between the two countries. The second one features Frank Frink (a Jew, born Frank Fink) and his friend, Ed McCarthy. They go into business producing jewelry. Also important to this story line is Robert Childan, who runs an antique store, very popular with the Japanese, who are very interested in American memorabilia. In the third plot line, Julianna Frink (Frank's ex-wife) meets young truck driver Joe Cinnadella in the Rocky Mountain States and they go on a road trip. This is the part of the story I found the most interesting, but I also want to say the least about it because I don't want to spoil it for readers.

The three story lines are linked by references to one or more common characters. Tagomi, the trade official, is a buyer of American antiques in Frank Frink's story line, for example. They are also loosely linked by a book which is circulating in all parts of the American states, titled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Joe Cinnadella is reading it and lends his copy to Julianna. A Japanese couple interested in antiques discusses the book with Robert Childan. This book within a book is an alternate history detailing how the Axis powers lost the war.

One element of the book I found very interesting was the pervasive use of the I Ching, often referred to as the oracle. Frank consults the I Ching. The question is: "Will I ever see Juliana again?" The answer is not comforting: "The maiden is powerful. One should not marry such a maiden."

This leads Frank to reminisce about Juliana:

Juliana—the best-looking woman he had ever married. Soot-black eyebrows and hair; trace amounts of Spanish blood distributed as pure color, even to her lips. Her rubbery, soundless walk; she had worn saddle shoes left over from high school. In fact all her clothes had a dilapidated quality and the definite suggestion of being old and often washed. He and she had been so broke so long that despite her looks she had had to wear a cotton sweater, cloth zippered jacket, brown tweed skirt and bobby socks, and she hated him and it because it made her look, she had said, like a woman who played tennis or (even worse) collected mushrooms in the woods. 

But above and beyond everything else, he had originally been drawn by her screwball expression; for no reason, Juliana greeted strangers with a portentous, nudnik, Mona Lisa smile that hung them up between responses, whether to say hello or not. And she was so attractive that more often than not they did say hello, whereupon Juliana glided by.

The story is very complex and, even though at times it was hard to follow, I have no complaints. It had a lot of depth and I am glad I finally read it.

The TV adaptation is very different from the novel. Philip K. Dick's book takes average, ordinary people in this alternate universe and explores how the situation affects them and their reactions. Although there are elements of a spy novel here, related to the political maneuvering of the two major powers, it is a small part of the story.  The TV series includes many characters from the book, but in some cases they have different names and most have very different story lines. It also adds many more people to the story; there is more emphasis on the people in power in both the Japanese and the Nazi areas and more emphasis on direct resistance to those groups. Readers who are purists when watching an adaptation might not find the TV version satisfying.

Both the book and the TV series present a picture of a very scary alternate history, at least for me. That was less a problem for me reading the book than watching the TV episodes, but it is the reason I put the book off for so long. I don't want to imagine that world. The adaptation has more thriller elements than the book. Each show has been a very tense viewing experience for me.

The TV series is very well done and well worth watching. The actors are mostly new to me, but they all do a very good job. The production values are very good. My husband especially likes the photography and the title sequence.

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Publisher:   Mariner Books, 2011 (orig. pub. 1962) 
Length:       274 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Setting:      US states, occupied
Genre:       Alternate History
Source:      I purchased this book.

Pashazade: John Courtenay Grimwood

Jon Courtenay Grimwood, author of Pashazade, was born in Malta in 1953, and grew up in Malta, Britain, Southeast Asia and Norway. He and his wife, novelist Sam Baker, divide their time between Winchester and Paris. Grimwood has written mostly novels in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and many of them also have mystery elements. This is the second book I have read by this author, and I hope to read many more.

Pashazade is the first book in the Arabesk Trilogy. The story starts with the investigation of a murder, but the chapters skip back and forth in time, sometimes a few days, sometimes going back years in flashbacks. The setting in the present time is El Iskandryia, a North African metropolis in a world where "the United States brokered a deal that ended World War I and the Ottoman Empire never collapsed," as described on the back of the book. So this is an alternate history, sci-fi, coming of age thriller, and just my cup of tea.

The central character in the trilogy is Ashraf al-Mansur, also known as 'Raf' and 'ZeeZee' (which gets confusing). He is a young man who has been released from a Seattle prison and brought to El Iskandryia to marry the daughter of the wealthy Hamzah Effendi. Supposedly he is the son of the Emir of Tunis, thus the title of the book. Pashazade is an Ottoman form of address or epithet, meaning "son of a Pasha". Raf is not sure about this; he has never known who his father was. Shortly after arriving and having met his new family, Raf is accused of a murder and thus gets involved in the investigation in order to clear himself.

I love the way Grimwood writes. The story was very complex and was often hard to follow. I wavered between confused and delighted and sometimes had no idea where the story was going, but I loved the journey.

He has created characters I care about and takes time to develop them. In addition to Raf, there is Zara, Hamzah Effendi's daughter, who is no more interested in the arranged marriage than he is. There is Hani, his nine-year-old cousin, a wonderful character. And Chief of Detectives Felix Abrinsky, formerly a policeman in Los Angeles, California, who is investigating the murder that Raf is accused of.

The author combines a murder investigation, although a very offbeat one, and alternate history, and throws in just a bit of sci fi. Many crime fiction readers won't go for that combination, but I do highly recommend this author and his writing. It is my impression that much of his work follows this same pattern. The first book I read by Grimwood was 9tail Fox, which is a standalone.

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Publisher:   Bantam, 2005. Orig. pub. 2001.
Length:       356 pages

Series:        Arabesk Trilogy #1
Format:       Trade paperback
Setting:       North African, alternate history version
Genre:        Sci fi / Mystery

King and Joker: Peter Dickinson

About the Book (from the author's website):

If Prince Edward hadn't died in 1892 he would have succeeded to the throne of England, instead of his brother George, and reigned as King Victor I, to be succeeded in his turn by his grandson King Victor II, the present monarch. Much would have remained the same, but much would have been very, very different. E.g., as a young man the king had refused to go into the army and insisted on having a medical training. In the same spirit his daughter, the teen-age Princess Louise, from whose point of view the story is seen, attends Holland Park Comprehensive. The palace is troubled by a series of practical jokes, humorous at first, but becoming increasingly unpleasant, until a corpse is discovered on the throne of England.

“Peter Dickinson has a fantastic eye for creating imaginary settings that come across as real and believable. They add to his mysteries a special extra fillip of enjoyment. He out- does himself this time.. . . A most unusual and original mystery. ”
Publishers Weekly

To be candid, this book is one of my favorite books ever, no matter what genre we are considering. So my review is very biased and subjective. This is the third time I have read the book, and I have loved it every time.

King and Joker crosses genres, being both alternate history and a mystery. The book is set in 1976 (when it was written), and most of the story takes place at Buckingham Palace. The story centers on Princess Louise, who is 13 years old. She is mature for her age, but also very naive, as one would expect in such a situation.

Princess Louise is a lovely character, as is her brother Albert. Most of the rest of the characters did not appeal to me so much, not unlikable but just not drawn in as much depth. Princess Louise often visits her former nanny, Durdy, who has been nanny to many princes and princesses. Durdy (or Miss Ivy Durden) is very old and only being kept alive by the various machines she is attached to. The reader gets some of the history of the present king from Durdy as she reminisces.

I will be honest and say that I would not consider this a great mystery novel. I enjoyed it most for the coming of age story of Princess Louise and the beautiful way that the story is told from her point of view. Yet, it has quite enough mystery for me, both in discovering who could be getting away with practical jokes in such a secure environment and who perpetrated the murder that happens as a result of the practical jokes.

There is a sequel to this book, Skeleton in Waiting, published in 1989. I have read that book and I found it disappointing. Probably my expectations were too high since I love King and Joker so much. Yet some reviewers like it, so I would not discourage anyone from giving it a try. Which I plan to do again someday.

Some other resources:

Jo Walton has a great discussion of this book at Tor.com. She says:

"It’s a mystery set in an alternate history. It’s not a story about the alternate history, though the background is well worked out and the revelations are well fitted in to the story." 

Analytical review by cjwatson.
This reviewer mentions one of my least favorite plot points which involves the nanny's nurse, Kinunu. I definitely had reservations about that part of it, at least at this reading of the book, and I think that element could have been handled better. Too much of a plot spoiler to go into it further, though.

I have read several other books by Peter Dickinson. Only one has been reviewed on this blog: The Last Houseparty.

This book is a submission for 1976 for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences. I have been surprised to find that I have enjoyed reading books for the 1970's and 1980's as much as those from earlier decades.

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Publisher:  Pantheon Books, 1976. 
Length:     222 pages
Format:     Hardcover
Series:      Princess Louise, #1
Setting:     UK
Genre:      Alternative History / Mystery
Source:    I purchased this book.