by Len Deighton
First published 1980
Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer works under SS command at Scotland Yard in occupied Britain. The year is 1941. German forces have conquered England, executed Churchill, and imprisoned the King in the Tower of London. The Queen and Princesses have escaped to Australia. SS officers now control London police headquarters. Archer begins investigating what appears to be an ordinary murder case. Then an SS Standartenführer arrives from Berlin on Himmler's direct orders to oversee the investigation. The case explodes into something far more dangerous. The SS officer warns Archer they face consequences worse than the Black Death itself. Archer navigates between British resistance fighters, wealthy collaborators, rival German factions, and high-level scientists. An American reporter complicates matters further as she covers the story for neutral newspapers back home. Archer discovers layers of espionage and betrayal that threaten the King's life and England's future.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, detective, espionage, alternate-history
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Scotland Yard, London, Berlin, Australia, Tower of London
Period: 1941
375 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Ballantine Books
Content warnings: violence