1941, and Germany has won the war and is occupying England. Douglas Archer is a Scotland Yard detective who still has crimes to investigate, but one particular murder inquiry attracts the interest of the German army.

Well I think this was quite well written, although it took me a long time to get through it: the concept was interesting, and there was plenty going on, but it wasn't exactly a page-turner and so I found my attention wandering.

There was quite a lot of plot - in fact maybe a bit too much going on because I had a bit of trouble working out who was on whose side (although perhaps that was intentional: the sense of confusion I had about where loyalties lay is what would have been felt by the book's characters too).

What I think worked well was the evocation of a country which has been defeated: it reminded me of the feel you get in War of The Worlds, when the Martians are in the ascendant, and everywhere there are bombed out buildings, people going hungry, and small groups trying to organise seemingly futile efforts at resistance.

Actually it felt like the book had been written in the 1940s, and I was surprised to find it had been written in 1978.

I'd read more by Len Deighton.

Completed : 08-Oct-2008 (audiobook)