SS-GB
First Edition
|
|
| Author | Len Deighton |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Raymond Hawkey |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Alternate history |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
|
Publication date
|
24 August 1978 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 368 |
| ISBN | |
SS-GB is an alternative history novel by Len Deighton, set in a United Kingdom conquered and occupied by Germany during the Second World War. The novel's title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS that controls Britain. It was first published in 1978.
In November 1941, nine months after a German invasion led to the British surrender, Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer, of the London's Metropolitan Police - CID (Criminal Investigation Department) at Scotland Yard (Homicide Detective), is called in to investigate a murder of a well-dressed man in a flat in Shepherd Market.
Although the body has two gunshot wounds, Archer is puzzled by its condition, in particular by what appears to be sunburn on the arm. To his surprise, the case draws the attention of the highest levels of the German authorities, as an SS Standartenführer, Oskar Huth, arrives to supervise the investigation. Archer soon finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between Huth and Gruppenführer Fritz Kellerman, Archer's boss and the head of police forces in Great Britain, while also becoming embroiled in the British Resistance movement and attempts to bring America into the war.
SS-GB is set less than a year after Britain’s surrender following a successful Operation Sea Lion. In 1940, the Germans landed near Ashford, Kent, and Canterbury was declared an open city. The German advance captured London but a British rear guard around Colchester slowed down the Germans for long enough to enable Royal Navy ships to escape from Harwich. King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill became prisoners of the Germans. Britain’s gold and foreign reserves were shipped to Canada.
...
Wikipedia