Black Cross

Greg Iles’ alternative fiction novel Black cross, is described in a Publisher’s Weekly review as “an action-packed yet thoughtful yarn about a mission to stop the Nazi development of two new poison gases, Sarin and Somin, in a small concentration camp”. 

Set just prior to D-Day in 1944, the two men chosen to complete this mission could not be more different. An American pacifist doctor and poison gas researcher, Mark McConnell and Jonas Stern, a militant Zionist of German descent. 

They travel to Germany, where the gases are being developed and tested on human subjects, and attempt to destroy the camp with the Allies small supplies of the same gas. 

A Booklist review describes Black cross as “[a] remarkable story from a remarkable writer,” deserving “the acclaim it's certain to receive.” 

Iles, Greg. Black cross, London: Harper, 2014.

References:

Greg Iles' Website

Books in Print Professional Reviews

Kirkus Review 

Goodreads Reader Reviews

Farthing

Farthing is the first in Jo Walton's acclaimed World War Two alternative history Small Change trilogy. It was first published in 2006.

The main action in Farthing occurs in 1949, eight years after a group of upper crust Englishmen (known as the Farthing Set) have overthrown Winston Churchill and negotiated peace with Nazi Germany.

With Hitler in control of the European continent, the somewhat fascist members of the Farthing Set attend a weekend retreat at the country house of Lord and Lady Eversley. There Sir James Thirkie, the main architect of the “Farthing Peace” and Prime Ministerial prospect, is murdered with a yellow Star of David pinned prominently across his chest.

The murderer is immediately suspected to be David Kahn, the Jewish husband of the Eversley's estranged daughter Lucy. Both had unexpectedly been invited to the weekend get-together.

Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is assigned to the case and quickly realises that Kahn may have been set up by this deeply anti-Semitic crowd.

This well-written and -researched novel revolves around the Inspector's investigations and Walton delves deeply into themes of homosexuality, fascism, class and anti-Semitism.

As the first book of the Small Change trilogy, the plot twists in Farthing set up the context of the following two novels admirably.

Walton, Jo. Farthing, London: Corsair, 2014.


Small Change trilogy

• Farthing (2006)
• Ha'penny (2007)
• Half a crown (2008)

References:
 
Books in Print Professional Reviews
Jo Walton's Website
Goodreads Reader Reviews

Hitler’s War

Harry Turtledove is one of the most prolific alternative history fiction writers. Hitler's war is the first book in his six book The war that came early series.

The basic premise of this novel is that World War 2 started one year earlier than in our timeline with the Munich Crisis of 1938. In  Hitler's war there was no appeasement with Germany and war was declared against her when Hitler's troops marched into the Sudetenlad in Czechoslovakia.

Published in 2009, Hitler's war tells the story through the perspective of several different characters including a Jewish girl in Germany, an American woman stranded in Germany as well as soldiers from all nationalities and sides.

This is a very readable book with The Library Journal's review stating that Turtledove's “mastery of the ever widening ripples that small changes make in history is unchallenged, his storytelling always gripping, and his research impeccable.” (Library Journal, August 1, 2009)  

 
Turtledove, Harry. Hitler’s war, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2009.

The war that came early hexology

• Hitler's war (2009)
• West and east (2010)
• The big switch (2011)
• Coup d'etat (2012)
• Two fronts (2013)
• Last orders (2014)

References:

Harry Turtledove's Website
Books in Print Professional Reviews
Goodreads Readers Reviews

The Plot Against America

 

Philip Roth's prize-winning The plot against America has several similarities to Jo Walton's Small Change series. Set in World War 2 America as opposed to Britain, Roth explores the chilling consequences of a fascinating “what if”. What if the right-wing, isolationist and anti-Semitic aviation hero Charles A. Lindburgh had defeated Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1940 US presidential election?

The plot against America is narrated from the perspective of a young Philip Roth and his family. In it he explores the virulent anti-Semitism of 1940's America.

President Lindburgh proceeds to lead America on the path towards fascism, signing treaties with both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan promising that the US will stay out of their expansionist wars. He also enacts new laws to take Jewish youth from the east coast cities of the US to the rural Midwest and South to “Americanise” them.

Whilst there is no evidence that Lindburgh ever planned to run as president, he was a staunch isolationist and felt that “undesirable elements” of the US population were pushing America towards war.

The plot against America received rave reviews with the Library Journal stating that “Roth's take on alternative history is crafted with chilling plausibility” and that it is “[a] novel of fear and fearful possibility ...”


Roth, Philip. The plot against America, Sydney: Random House Australia, 2004.

References:





 Books in Print Professional Reviews
New York Times Review
Goodreads Reader Reviews