My first Len Deighton — very enjoyable, though feels a division below my favourite, John Le Carré (even in his weaker works). The setting is occupied London, in the aftermath of a shorter World War Two where the Nazis won, and the protagonist is a conflicted but professional Scotland Yard detective. It starts as a normal-enough murder investigation, but with inevitably more significant implications and repercussions. The story is solid, and enjoyable, though slightly overly convoluted at times, mystery. Motivations get very muddied, though there is some realism in that. My worst complaint is that some of the characters — particularly our hero — are a bit wooden. He is described as unemotional by others, but it felt like that was a smokescreen for him not having been written more convincingly. The less said of the unnecessary romance the better. Minor gripes, though. I enjoyed the story, and much of the detail of this particular 'what-if' scenario was done very well. ( )

I think I have read most of Deighton's books over the years but hadn't read this one. My eye was caught when last in Waterstones as it has been released as part of their Modern Classics Crime and Espionage series.

If you are a fan of crime novels then there will be much that is familiar to you in here. A body is discovered and it is eventually identified as the Scientist Dr Spode who is not only dead but has strange burns on his forearms. Douglas Archer, Archer of the Yard, is given the case to solve and he ends up on a twisty, convoluted journey to find the killer. What makes the book different is the 'What if . . .' setting and time because Deighton has anchored this book in a Britain that surrendered after two years of war and is now ruled by Germans with the King in London Tower.

The conquerors have installed irritating and useless rules for people to live by and if there is any threat to their rule, the locals are rounded up, sent to Germany to 'work' or are killed by firing squad. The journey to find the murderer takes Archer into the world of resistance which desires the King to released from the tower and America to enter the war.

What I think the book does do well is to show the motivations of people to save those they love, fathers and sons, those who don't agree with their own regime and the activists and how they can be manipulated to work for the system. It shouldn't be a surprise that the seemingly most English loving German, dressed in his tweeds as if he is off for a day's shooting, turns out the be the most machievellian of the lot. They all end up owing him something and having to work for him. It's all about power.

During WWII there was a race for atomic bombs and this is reflected in the story: who will get them first? Americans or Germans and of course, we know so much more about this than the people in the book. For Archer the bomb documents are another bargaining chip rather than something he has fully understood, the same going for Huth, the German sent to oversee the case, who links it to the occult. This tension between characters' understanding and the reader's is an interesting one and a great device for the plot.

Written in 1978, it was probably quite radical at the time and of course so much nearer to the war that could be read by those who fought in it. Now, there are far more alternative histories based on this era and whilst it is a good read, it isn't outstanding. There is [Dominion] by C.J. Sansom, [Widowland] by C. J. Carey, [The Man in the Castle] by Philip K. Dick, [Fatherland] by Robert Harris and [1945] by Robert Conroy if you enjoy this sort of historical fiction.

It was an enjoyable read but not knock out. ( )

Un policier noir scris corect, dar pentru mine mai degrabă plictisitor.
Oarecum original e mai degrabă background-ul - Axa a câștigat WW2, dar din 1978 (când e scrisă cartea) a mai fost folosit de multe ori și a devenit destul de banal; pe deasupra, SS-iștii nu mi s-au părut credibili - se comportă ca niște lorzi britanici, nu ca militari fanatici ai unei dictaturi. Dialogurile sunt bune, dar am avut o problemă cu personajele (de ex. și cu ”dama” - mult prea noir șablon) și cu unele potriviri prea ușoare ca să înainteze ancheta.
Sincer, m-a plictisit considerabil și, deși mă așteptam la ceva mai germanificat în mentalitate și referințe, e 100% britanică.
Dacă vă plac noir-urile pe rețetă, go for it. Dacă vă așteptați (ca mine), la un fel de ”Omul din Castelul Înalt” (cartea, nu leșinătura de serial), veți fi dezamăgiți. ( )

This book reminded me a lot of Harris' Fatherland. But whereas Fatherland convincingly developed a deeper and deeper web of conspiracy, SS-GB's protagonist is thrown into an increasingly implausible plot. That's a bit of a shame because the raison d'etre of alternate history is the creation of a fantastical, but believable parallel history. While Deighton's occupied England is rich and believable, the events that transpire there stretched the bounds of plausibility a bit too much for me.

The other thing that bothered me a little is that the initial murder mystery plot-line is carefully developed with plenty of detail and suspense, but eventually falls into virtual irrelevance against the backdrop of the more significant machinations taking place. The connection between the micro- and macro-plots wasn't sufficiently strong for me to be left feeling that the first half was indispensable. That's a bit of a shame, because I had become quite engrossed in that plotline.

Still, an enjoyable read. ( )

In his novel "SS-GB", Len Deighton imagines an alternative history in which Nazi Germany invades and occupies much of Great Britain. The premise is similar to that of "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick, in which Dick describes an America divided between the victorious Axis powers after the Second World War.

"SS-GB" is set in the late autumn of 1941. Most of Britain is under German occupation and a puppet government, similar to that of Vichy France, has been set up to collaborate with the conquerors. The protagonist is Douglas Archer, a detective of Scotland Yard, who now works under General Kellerman, the chief Gestapo officer in Britain. Archer was already famous as "Archer of the Yard" before the war, although he is personally modest and not a publicity seeker.

But he is sought out, both by Standartenfuhrer Huth, an ambitious young SS officer who arrives on a secret mission, and who drafts Archer and tries to use him in his campaign against Kellerman, and on the other side by the British Resistance. Archer becomes involved in a plot to rescue King George VI from captivity in the Tower of London. This also involves elements of the German army and the Abwehr (military intelligence) that are anti-Nazi, atomic weapons research and contact with the U.S. government, which is neutral but which does not want Hitler to get the Bomb. For those who enjoy the game of "what if" this novel is an intriguing mental exercise in what could have been -and an entertaining read. ( )